Star Wars: The Old Republic: Darth Nihilus

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Part II can be found at this very address:

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/forums/fan-fic-8/star-wars-the-old-republic-darth-nihilus-ii-contin-1778338/

In the middle of the war, hardened Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders warriors and Republic Navy soldiers were fighting to the death in a battle that has started since the Mandalorian Wars--a sixteen years-spanning conflict instigated by the fallen Jedi turned Dark Lord Exar Kun and his Sith apprentice--the defectuous Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma who had murdered his brother and later he had found his way back to the light through Vima Sunrider, restoring his bond with the Force. Now the war was being waged by Mandalore the Ultimate.

3960 BBY

PROLOGUE:

Green and orange laser beams covered the dark dying sky; blue, yellow and green sparks flew in the air obliterating the gloomy surface of Malachor--a potent world infused with the dark side of the Force, a living manifestation of it, like Korriban.

Here, Mandalorian slaves were being transported far away from this wondrous world sipped into the Sith influence. Among these slaves, a human male stood as well, Vodan Tenebb--a man recently abducted from his home planet, Onderon.

Vodan desired more than ever to make his way out from there, but he did not have the ability of the Force to plan such a bold attempt, he was but a mere man, and the life had shown him this since his tragic recent events.

His white eyes gazed to the visible stars, his slave suit was dirt of the work he has done during his deport, his face, scarred; his left eye was shortcut during his deport; his entire body was subjected to the barbaric physical torture of Mandalorians. The man's stance was knackered, his spirit was broken, his soul was heavy, marked by the actions of the baneful past.

The war drums propagated to a large part of Malachor, the conflict intensified; masses of crashed republican and Mandalorian starships alike, some ascended to the depths of the sky and exploded while the men's corpses paved the cold harsh soil. Fleets after fleets continued to firepower one in each other; each side desiring to end this spanning conflict that has caused major losses on both sides once and for all.

"So fools, they don't realize they can't win?", he clenched his fist softly trying to draw the attention of those who were with him. The slave looked through the window, he knew that his life had come to an end, there was no reason for hoping that some saviors will come after them, not that he ever had hope in his life, fate or faith into the Jedi.

Then, a combination of green and black colors came out of nowhere, an explosion.

The destructive flames engulfed everything in their path--republicans and Mandalorians alike. It was a fascinating scenery of horror; the planet’s surface started to change. As the released blast began to consume the soil, the tiny organic plants—were all changed.

The soil turned gray and dusty, the plants withered as their remains ascended into the air or they might have disappeared mysteriously.

The slave ship was absorbed by the mysterious negative energies; the nullifying burst took every one and every living thing on the planet, killing them, creating a breach into the very fabric of Force. The sudden blast, took, him...

Death and tragedy lay on the evil marvelous planet that once belonged to the old Sith Empire--a rich and powerful world in the dark side, now a simple void where the Force could no longer exist, stripped away, never to return. But has anyone survived in the ensuing battle?

Next, a heart beat, two eyes opened up, a body moved…

Desolation

Chapter I

The broken man has awakened from the sleep of death; he felt like it has been for ages, though it passed but a few hours. Around him, the chaotic starships and fleets that attacked one each other ceased to bring fire and destruction upon the world, as if an unnatural force participated to their tragic demise. Vodan put himself up back on his feet and found himself in a junk yard of ships—some of the Republic cracking the planet’s ground, other of the Mandalorians that were physically torn apart by the bizarre phenomenon.

As Vodan regained his consciousness entirely, he experienced a feeling of emptiness, a feeling of inner ‘hunger’. He felt his heart beating faster, the blood pumping quicker in his ravaged body; he began to manifest convulsions.

Unwillingly, he ‘heard’ the thought of a helpless yet infuriated being,

Someone, please help me. I’m trapped into this damn ship!

Vodan followed the sound in his head, walking upon the lifeless soil of Malachor Five, stepping on the light stones and crushing them. The source of the voice led the former slave to a crashed Neo-Crusade starship.

The Mandalorian trapped within the crashed ship tried to press enough force on the glass to shatter it, but with no success.

“Damn it, need to get out of here.”, the brave man kept to punch the starship’s barely broken window.

Unbeknownst the hardened man, Vodan stared at him with a deep want to end the warrior’s existence . Kidnapped from his home, forced to do tasks for a slave, Vodan was more than happy to strike down that Mandalorian fighter.

The attempt was an utter disaster; the warrior noticed Vodan’s presence and used his gauntlet for the last time to destroy the starship’s glass, hitting the man with it and breaking the gauntlet in the process.

The Mandalorian warrior lunched and grabbed the slender man by his arms lifting him up in the air with his sheer physical strength. The warrior saw his uniform and knew the person was one of their slaves, apparently this one survived in the ensuing battle.

“You filthy, slave. I’ll take your life, now. No one defies Juelko-Au’rak Dae’co Kabaarness the Second, no one, ever!”

Juelko-Au’rak Dae’co Kabaarness the Second or known by his allies as ‘Jad the Kay Two’, he was one of the closest allies of Mandalore the Ultimate. He has fought Jedi, even dark side practitioners during his life as bounty hunter before he entered into their Neo-Crusader ranks. In spite of his lack of sensitivity in the Force, Jad the Kay learned on his very skin how to resist and combat average attacks based on the Force by wearing unnoticeable amulets in his armor that deflected lightning burst from a Sith’s negative emotions, mind tricks, mind illusions, notto be detected through the Force by any unwelcome ‘friends’. The tiny amulets stuffed into his armor were passed to him by his deceased Dark Jedi father Juelko-Au’rak Dae’Co Karbaarness the First, receiving it before he became a fully fledged warrior into the Neo-Crusade movement. The amulets had the power even to protect one’s signature from one of the most hideous abilities of the dark side used by the Sith, the draining Force technique.

The bad shape Mandalorian warrior held Vodan by his fragile neck ready to squish it, and then it happened; a mysterious craving for life and Force sprung from Tenebb. The charmed amulets have protected Jad from many Force abilities, but the slave’s power was different. Tenebb’s Hunger penetrated his precious magical amulets, consuming the Force energy within them. Before realizing, Jad died, his physical shelter consumed entirely fast as the thought. This abominable inconvenient result of the Mass Shadow Generator has created a monster, a devourer of all living things, a void in the Force, that soon was about to consume the entire galaxy.

Vodan felt agonizing pain before he could devour the Mandalorian’s essence, as if his very being was absorbed by a black hole never to return, and when the life-force of the warrior filled him, he felt complete again.

A moment of euphoria and wholeness, but it did not last long, the excruciating appetite for life induced him into a stage of agony again. Vodan let his all-consuming Hunger to be his guide in absorbing all the energies resulted from deaths caused by Revan’s devastating device. Craving for Force energy, life-force, and death, they became his primordial thing.

He fed instinctively with the deaths of all those who died on the planet, hundreds of Republican soldiers and Mandalorian warriors alike.

Vodan walked through the graveyard of broken warships, reaching into an area populated by a non-sentient hostile semi-humanoid species called ‘storm beasts’--monstrous creatures twisted by the gone-energy of the dark side of the Force. The storm beasts were two meters tall with green skin, red small sharp teeth, and black eyes.

The creatures acknowledged the man’s presence and they set an ambush for him. The human ran as fast as he could trying to save his life throughout the cracked and twisted wasteland covered with jagged cliffs and plagued by constant lightning storms. The dark side beasts cornered the human, ready to kill their defenseless prey.

Fear crippled in Vodan’s mind and he straightened his hands to the hideous monster suspending them into a sudden whirlwind of thirty meters high hurling the storm beasts out of the planet’s orbit, but performing such a devastating attack made him to collapse on the lifeless ground.

With no exterior aid, Vodan wondered himself if he was truly able to practice the mystical power used by the Jedi and Sith, so simply called ‘The Force’. But how was he capable to use it in the first place, since his parents were no real scions of a sensitive in the Force but mere men with simple daily works and daily problems.

If this mysterious energy inhabited his ravaged body, of what other wondrous things was he capable of, Vodan asked himself again. His mind consuming questions were met by the exact answers which he was looking for when a beautiful elderly woman with hooded face dressed in a black robe was coming to him stepping out from her own starship that landed near the young man.

She walked elegantly toward a collapsed man and kneeled on her both feet,

“Who…khhh…are…hhh, you?”, he was barely breathing.

The enigmatic old figure laid her soft fragile left hand fingers on his head,

“I hold the answers for your questions, seeker.”

“My name’s Vodan Tenebb, son of dead Tenebb and his wife.”, he blinked twice,

“What’s yours, old woman?”, he exhaled rapidly,

“I am Darth Traya, Dark Lord of the Sith.”, she softly said,

“What are you doing on this planet, woman?”, he added,

“What can I hope to find but truth and revenge.”, the elderly woman told him.

“Revenge, against who?”, he stood up by the woman’s shaking hand.

“Who else but the Jedi. They are arrogant and ignorant about the nature of the Force and the truth of this perverted universe. They are so blind that they do not realize that the Force controls everything and everyone. They must see the truth, and I will make them to see it no matter the consequences.”

“I hate the Jedi, Lord Traya. Because of them the galaxy always is enslaved. They have a great power but they don’t care to use it to protect those who cannot defend themselves, they are sunk into their peaceful ways and refuse to see that the galaxy is constantly changing.”

“Because of them, my parents died in a spaceship explosion at the hands of a couple of bounty hunters and I was left to ‘rot’ in an orphanage, I was everyone’s joke. I hate them all.”,Vodan angrily clenched his right fist with despise remembering about his past.

The old woman wished to continue their dialogue but the man had more to tell,

“I hate all the Jedi, especially one, Revan.”

“Revan, the rebel Jedi Knight?”

“When I searched for my parents’s death cause, I have found out that those hired bounty hunters tried to frame-up Revan, so the Republic would lose their faith in him and his followers in their wars against the Mandalorians.”

Traya sensed his immense hate for the Jedi and Revan seeking it as the perfect opportunity in destroying the Force and making the Jedi to see the 'real' truth of this universe. For her, VodanTenebb was essential, and his strange condition made him even more priceless for her.

“You will always find out that nothing else brings people closer but hate itself.”

“Let’s share our contempt for the Jedi and the Republic. We will make them pay for their utter ignorance, and we will show them the consequences of the truth.”

“Become my Sith student and I shall learn you the ways of the Force. I will make you more powerful than you can ever imagine.”

“I agree with your words, Lord Traya.”, he nodded for her.

“But what should we do?”

“First, we shall go for a walk.”

As the two moved on the crackle soil, Vodan was unsure about where they were heading,

“Excuse me, Lord Traya, but where more exactly are we going?”, he looked at her as they were going.

“We are heading to an ancient academy of the dark side that once belonged to the ancient Sith. That structure holds secrets that wait to be unlocked by someone.”

“After all, what is the meaning of knowledge if you do not use it?”

“I’m not a man of knowledge, I care only about taking my revenge and to give a lesson to these worlds, to know that I exist.”

“Yes, but remember, that once with knowledge, power comes.”, the Sith Master added.

“I hurled thirteen beasts of this planet out of the orbit, I don’t think I need any ‘knowledge’.”,Vodan said to the elderly woman.

“Yet that action almost exhausted you. Your attack was uncontrolled, sloppy, pathetic, you might have died as well.”

“That is why knowledge is an essential part of one’s evolution to a higher degree of existence. Without knowledge, we are governed by other forces, as most civilizations of this galaxy are.”

Yet why him, Vodan had another unanswered question, and the Dark Lord read his mind, offering him one,

“If you wonder yourself why I chose you, it is because I can see your true nature. You are a breach in the Force, a void, you defy the very nature of the Force.”

“You are not a slave to the Force as all around you are or myself. You are a predatory of Force. With the time, even the mightiest of warriors would flee from your presence. Your potential of achieving power, it is at best, endless.”

While they were talking, Traya and Vodan reached the Storm beast pen—a place where twenty monstrous creatures were ready to slaughter them.

“We’re good as dead, let’s run, Master.”, he turned his back,

“Wait, and think before acting. We shall pass safely and unharmed.”, the Dark Lord subdued the storm beasts to her will using the power of the Force and they walked without problems among them.

“But how?”, Vodan asked himself to the sudden stop of the creatures, how could they not see them, was there a magic trick the elderly woman did not wish to say,

“That is the power of knowledge, young man. With knowledge you can do so many things even if you lack power.”, she said staring at the huge doors that led to the old Sith academy.

Traya and her companion kept walking unharmed by the ferocious beasts, and appetite for Force once more provoked tormenting distress to Vodan making him to fall on his knees.Traya sensed his involuntary wish for devouring life,

“You have something deep hidden within yourself, an all-consuming hunger that consumes everything around you.”, the Sith Lord watched the beasts and had Vodan to do something,

“Absorb these creatures’s signature in the Force.”

Vodan straightened his hands at the storm beasts as colorless beams liquid like touched their bodies taking their Force energy and life-force; the storm beasts screamed in terrible utter pain as they were devoured by an event horizon. Vodan sucked them completely, even their physical shelters were gone, drawn into the lifeless abyss.

For a few moments his appetite was filled, but his Master yet promised,

“Your hunger is severe, but once we will learn the powerful secrets within the Academy, we shall find a way to help you in ending your addiction to the energy of the Force.”

“Yes, Lord Traya.”, he slowly breathed, but there was another question,

“Why, Master, why am I having this pain?”, Traya added in trying to infuriate him in turning the ravaged man to the dark side,

“What happened to you it was because of the Mass Shadow Generator. A device constructed by a Zabrak engineer, and designed by Revan.”

“REVAN!”, he raised his tone in silence,

“The same crude instrument that ravaged the surface of this whole world.”

“No one was supposed to live in the ensuing battle.”

“You surviving the destructive beams of the Mass Shadow Generator, it was one of the plots of the Force in the grand schemes of things”

“In its hypocrisy, the Force brought a knife upon its own throat.”

“You possess the power to defy its will.”

Traya opened the Sith Academy’s massive gates with her telekinesis,

“This is the place, young one. We are here.”, she looked at the colossal interior side of the old structure.

His revenge was awaiting, but the Dark Lord lay her hand on his shoulder,

“Before entering there, I must be sure of your loyalty pledged to the Sith Order.”

“Lord Traya, I already gave you my agreement.”, he added,

“Your mere ‘agreement’ means nothing to me. If you do not learn the dark side and accept it, it will destroy you.”

“I think I don’t understa-“

“How much would you be willing to sacrifice to meet your purpose, would you ever going to stop, are you seriously ready in risking everything to fulfill your goals?”

“But Mas-“

“The dark side is a dangerous and treacherous game at best. Once you have taken the path there is no turning back.”, for Vodan the old woman was suddenly so a guidebook,

“You still have a choice, young man. You can choose to leave from here and die with dignity on this world keeping the purity of your soul, unable to take your revenge, or you can follow the path of darkness that will deform you and shall offer you powers beyond imagination.”

Vodan’s heart beat faster, his blood pumped quicker in his veins as Traya’s words pierced into his soul,

“Whether the choice, there shall be consequences.”

As he kneeled before her at the Academy’s entrance, images and voices with him being mocked or humiliated by the people around him; kids who bullied him at the orphanage, men who laughed of him because of his status in society, made him to choose his final decision,

“I swear you that I will learn the ways of the dark side. After all what can one risk if he has lost everything?”

“Then it is done, my apprentice. We can go inside.”

Here Darth Revan used the immense power of the Core on captured Jedi to test their spirit, if they last its powers of the dark side, they were killed, if they fell they became Dark Jedi and sent to Korriban.

As the two walked, they were visited by mysterious dark side warriors dressed in black suits who used stealth generators to fool the eye, but for a Force sensitive that was not the case,

“They are what is left from Darth Revan’s Guards, watching over this place since their Dark Lord has left them on this barren planet. But they no longer wish to serve him, as he abandoned them.”

“Welcome back Lord Traya.”, one of the Guards added.

Vodan wondered how did they know her and how did she know them, unaware that Trayaplayed with his mind using the Force making him to see a fictional starship, like she was his savior.

The ancient Sith Academy on Malachor was formed from three parts, the Crescent, located to the west, a hall with many alcoves that were frequented by Darth Revan’s ex-Jedi companions who managed to hide in the old Academy before the Mass Shadow Generator was activatednullifying everything from the face of the planet. To the east, the Proving Grounds was a warren of small and cramped rooms in which many fallen Jedi trained.

The two walked accompanied by the warriors through the large parts of the building heading in the northern point of both wings that led to the Academy's central area, the last bit of open space before the innermost sanctum of the Academy, the Core.

The Core was a claw-like altar—suspended above a massive geyser of dark side energy—stabilized by three bridges that connected to the rest of the Sith Academy. It was created by the mysterious Sith Empire Traya learned in her historical studies.

Traya and her Sith apprentice with the warriors walked on one of the bridges heading to the claw-like altar.

The Dark Lord ordered her Guards forming a circle around her and Vodan for initiation; she had him to kneel into the heart of the ancient Sith Academy where his transformation to the dark side was complete.

Traya took her lightsaber from her belt and she activated it; a crimson laser blade passed over his right to left shoulder,

“The galaxy will remember this place filled with death; the place where the Sith Lord Darth Nihilus was born.”

“Yes, Master.”

3955 BBY

An Immortal Ally

Chapter II

The elder woman stood in the Academy’s Core with her apprentice engulfed by the dark energies, celebrating the defeat of Revan’s four years empire next ruled by his apprentice who assumed the command, as it was now their turn to grip the galaxy into darkness.

“The two of us and a ‘small’ fraction of Revan’s warriors will not be enough to defeat the Jedi and the Republic, we need an entire army.”

The man in a black robe with hooded face was intrigued about it,

“And how will we do that, Master?”,

Traya imagined a world where the dark side has run very strong, and continues to, a symbol world of the Sith Order. Traya spoke with Nihilus,

“Betrayed by Malak and brainwashed by the Jedi, Revan was tasked by the Jedi Council to go on Korriban, home planet to the darkest Lords.”

“There, Revan had the mission to destroy the Sith Academy by earning its Headmaster UtharWynn’s trust; Uthar was deceived and ultimately destroyed by Revan.”

“With the Headmaster’s death, the students fought for his title, before eventually destroying themselves.”

Though, Nihilus remembered that Revan had been once a Sith,

“Was my training in vain, after all Revan was but one of them.”

The old woman laughed being amused by his futile answer,”

“No, not even close to the truth, Lord Nihilus.”,

“What do you mean with that, Master Traya?”, he was disturbed by her abrupt answer,

“Revan was a prodigal knight who used himself by their identity and power to reshape the Republic by his vision. In essence, he was never a true conquerer.”

“How did he manage to gather such an army of warriors?”, Nihilus asked her as he lost his common sense with the outside world being trained by Traya in secret away from the prying eyes of Darth Revan’s facade empire,

“Embracing the superficial philosophy of the Sith ways, Revan seduced many prodigal knights just as him that helped him in building a great force.”

“However, that achievement was not enough to topple the Republic. Revan journeyed toKorriban for finding powerful secrets, and there was the place where he found a large army of hidden Sith assassins in the command of a great Sith Marauder, Darth Sion.”

“’Sion’?”, Nihilus said,

“Sion was a Sith Lord who served the infamous brief Sith Empire of the fallen Jedi turned Dark Lord Exar Kun.”

“Revan reasoned with the Marauder, and they agreed to unite their forces in an attempt tobring order to the galaxy.”, Traya explained to him that the empire of Revan had its very foundations in Exar Kun’s force remnants,

“What’s become with Sion?”,

“After Revan destroyed the Sith Academy on Korriban, and defeated Malak, Lord Sion chose to stay there until a new Sith Empire, a ‘true’ Sith Empire will rise once more.”

“So you are seeking this Marauder, am I right?”

“Indeed, apprentice.”

“That is why you must journey to Korriban and make him to join our forces.”

“Will he join us?”, he asked his Master,

“You will learn that a good war is what a warrior seeks, and not its reasons, otherwise there would not be any conflicts, especially this ‘warrior’.”, Traya revealed to him that this Sion was a physically deformed walking dead man, his body was rotten, and what kept him alive was nothing else but the dark side itself,

“Sion is a unique bred of being just as you are; different, yet very similar under a few important aspects.”

“The Marauder has found a way to achieve the immortality of flesh.”,

“’Flesh’, how can it be?”, he interrupted his woman Master,

“Of course there is a price for everything we plan to achieve in our short meaningless existence. For Sion is the intense agonizing affliction that swallows his body. The pain and the hate is what keeps him alive.”, Traya added her last words,

“But enough talking, we have an ally to claim, and an alliance to forge.”, the elderly mastermind Dark Lord ordered her apprentice to leave Malachor,

“Men, take Lord Nihilus to the ‘Decepter’ transport ship.”, the only functional ship on the planet,

“Yes, Lord Traya.”, the raspy voice one said.

The few who were told by Traya to help her apprentice in completing his task, they guidedNihilus at the surface of the world where lay the flying ship, Nihilus standing in the middle front.

The trap door opened and they entered; the young Sith Lord wished he could fly a ship, yet to his good fortune a warrior skilled in flying space ships assumed the Decepter’s flying.

“Take a seat, Lord Nihilus, and enjoy your ride.”, the raspy voice one added activating the ship’s engines reaching out of the planet’s orbit.

They travelled across hot stars, dwarf stars; only Nihilus knew what else they have seen since the trip’s beginning.

As they roamed the vast cosmos toward Korriban, a couple of meteors were about to smash the Decepter. Unbeknownst him, Traya reached into his mind by tapping in the reservoir of dark side powers within the Academy’s Core,

“Nihilus, listen to my voice.”, he blinked,

“Who’s that?”, the voice was suddenly familiar,

“Master, is that you?”, he looked through the window to see if she was truly there, she was not,

“I established a mental link with you by using the Force, but that is not important now.”

“Master thank you that you are here; the meteors will tear us apart if we don’t do something fast.”

“Calm down, Nihilus.”, the apprentice followed her advice,

“Use the power of Force and shape with your thoughts a shield around the ship.”

He took notice of Traya’s words and focused himself at maximum on the transport ship’s structure. An invisible field covered the Decepter as the meteors hit the Force shield and were turned to mote dust.

Nihilus kept the ship intact using the Force as they were almost near Korriban. But the hunger made its way back, and it was more severe than the last moments,

“Aaaahhhh!”, he groaned in silence and agony,

“I need energy.”, the Sith Lord was hungry, yet the mentor read his mind,

“Cease, you must stop!”, she shouted deep inside the Academy’s heart,

“I can’t, it hurts me.”, though Traya approached with an alternative for his torment,

“You can slowly devour their essences. It may not sate completely your hunger, but it will be enough for the pain to fade away.”

He accepted the woman’s advice and began slowly sucking the life-force and Force energy of the men in the ship, without their awareness.

As they penetrated Korriban’s vapid atmosphere, the warriors started feeling sick; some were about to faint, a few threw up on the metallic floor, some felt an unusual distress that softly crossed through their bodies.

The harrowing hunger phenomenon had effects on the ship’s pilot too, fortunately for Nihilus, the pilot had enough strength to safely land with the transport ship in the Valley of the Dark Lords.

As he and his companion warriors came out of the ship, Nihilus never felt something like that before, so much dark side power; so much, that he could hear, as the wind blew fluttering his black robe and hood, the deep whispers of the fallen Dark Lord coming from their spooky hollow burial chambers questioning the new comers’s disturbing presence.

Traya was with him all the time, and she heard the voice as well,

“Ignore these voices of the past. Focus on your task, Lord Nihilus.”

“Yes, Master.”, he turned his look at every tomb he could see; that of Naga Sadow’s, TulakHord’s, and one of the foremost Sith Lords, Ajunta Pall’s. But the time was critical and Nihiluswas aware that they had to find this Marauder if he truly wished for his revenge to be fulfilled.

Nihilus and his fellows warriors ignored the spirits’s taunts heading to the Academy climbing up the vale passing exactly by the infamous Shyrack Cave, the place where resided the tomb of Ludo Kressh.

He sensed the cave’s strong dark side energy releases, and he gazed at it, Traya hunched,

“What you see is a cave with shyracks where lies the final resting place of Ludo Kressh, LordNaga Sadow’s rival.”

“I should enter and seek for its secrets to gain a greater power.”, Nihilus thought,

“That place is too powerful, even for you. You are not ready to face what is inside, at least not at your level of knowledge and skill.”

He took his mind off it and approached the Sith Academy to find this mysterious warrior known as Darth Sion.

As they were near the huge door, it magically started to open as if it were controlled by someone inside the ruined structure,

“That’s Darth Sion.”, Nihilus told the warriors watching as the door unfolded before them.

The door opened, and fourteen Sith hounds known as the Tuk'ata ambushed Nihilus and his men. He leaped back three meters away igniting his red laser sword taking the defense position; the warriors attacked the Tuk'atas with their Force Pikes, cortosis sabers, and war blades.

The pack of hounds scratched the warriors's suits and skin with their deadly claws, sinking their sharp fangs into the warriors's heads.

All the men fell before his eyes, and a need to help them crippled into his mind, but the Dark Lord prevented his action,

"Do not waste your powers by helping them, they out lived their usefulness. Take advantage of their suffering to increase your powers and destroy the beasts."

"I can't let them to die. They are my men, Master Traya."

"If they had your position they would have done the same with you."

"I won't, sorry, Master.", instinctively he broke the mental link with Traya rejecting her from his mind.

Without Traya's advices, Nihilus was on his own, not sure of how to use the Force properly.

His crimson blade struck down some of Tuk'atas's skin, piercing their hearts and skulls. But the speed of the creatures was too much for him, his perceptions were still not formed yet at the stages of a trained sensitive fighter. The sheer physical strength of the Tuk'atas overwhelmed him; but Nihilus managed to resist. The hounds began ambushing the man again; the Sith Lord approached his hands gathering massive telekinetic energy in his palms. He jumped back, avoiding the attacks of the hounds, concentrating the telekinetic blast with hatred and anger.

Once it was charged, Nihilus made the Tuk'atas to involuntary forming a row, and as the beasts gathered, the Sith Lord released the telekinetic blow, disintegrating the Sith pets with his own power.

The enigmatic Marauder saw the traveller by using the Force perception. Deep in the darkness, he spoke,

"Interesting. Let him get inside.", the unannounced guest earned his credibility.

He stepped inside the school, walking the halls through the ruined structure, following the presence of the enigmatic darksider.

As Nihilus took the trail of the Marauder's dark side aura, a couple of twenty assassins with cloaking generators attacked the Sith apprentice.

His lightsaber skills were of no use as the assassins were more experienced in holding a laser sword.

The assassins were aimed on his legs, chest, and the head; Nihilus predicted their swift attacks, rapidly moving his lightsaber to dodge their vicious blows.

He and his enemies pierced their red lightsabers into walls, damaged boxes, ceramic pots.

The silent fighters struck Nihilus without hesitation, hitting him by the harsh cold walls with a telekinetic wave, losing the lightsaber as he was thrown in the air.

He quickly stood up pulling back his lightsaber hurling four assassins a few meters away from him with the Force by waving his right hand, breaking their ribs and spinal columns.

Nihilus positioned himself like a womb gathering Force power to unleash a telekinetic blast; he began to float in the air as he groaned and frowned his eyebrows, concentrating the telekinetic blast's energy.

Two seconds, and the telekinetic explosion was unleashed, disintegrating the Sith assassins, no single trace of dust motes remained. The blast made its way throughout all the Academy, shaking its very foundations. The dark side was strong with Nihilus, and this was just the beginning. The released telekinetic blast exhausted him, too much for a novice.

The mysterious dark figure decided it is the moment to show himself.

With no other possible danger in his path, Nihilus was free to follow the dark side energy mark of the Marauder. Walking many ruined halls and rooms, he reached into the Academy's centre place, when a deformed living rotten corpse appeared out of nowhere before him, coming with a large number of Sith assassins,

"Who are you and what's your purpose here?", the Sith Marauder said,

"Join our forces on Malachor Five, and we will take our revenge on the Jedi.", he pointed at the Marauder,

"Join your 'forces'?", Sion cracked his teeth,

"It will take more than that to convince me.",

"Join my Master Traya's deadly forces, and we will bring down the Republic.", Nihilus added in response to Sion's answer,

"If your forces are so 'deadly', how is it that I never heard of you, how is it that you need my help?", he was speechless as Sion spoke,

"I served an empire that almost destroyed the Jedi if not for one's monumental betrayal. Lord Exar Kun would have brought the Golden Age of the Sith if not for his grandiose death that left us scattered across the galaxy.",

"It will take you more than your simple 'reasons' to make me join you.", Sion gently lay his right decomposed hand on the lightsaber,

"Then it seems I'll have to use the 'body language'.", Nihilus took his lightsaber from the belt, activating it,

"Now you have captured my attention.", Sion ignited his own,

"Stand back.", the assassins stepped backward forming a circle; some stood on ruined concrete remains, a few lay their bodies on the walls, others stood on their own feet with crossed arms.

A contest skill and power was about to take place, with the assassins as witnesses.

The Marauder jumped in the air straightening his lightsaber's bloody laser blade to pierce the visitor; Nihilus leaped back as Sion's blade's edge penetrated the stoned floor.

Having the lightsaber's edge stuck into the floor, Nihilus took advantage of the situation, and telekinetically tossed the Sith Marauder cracking the wall with him. Large dusty concrete pieces collapsed over his decayed body, pressing tension over his flesh, crushing his rotten limbs. Sion howled in pain, throwing off the concrete pieces with a sphere-like telekinetic explosion.

Sion took his lightsaber back from the ground and burst with speed; Nihilus tightened his hands holding the lighsaber, ready to parry the blow. Sion's blade strike overpowered Nihilus's physical strength creating enough tension to hurl him a few meters back.

As he launched, the Marauder caught him into a medium sized Force whirlwind, spinning him through all the centre room. As he was suspended into a whirlwind, Nihilus threw his lightsaber with the Force to slice Sion. As the blade of the lightsaber came, Sion caught it with his bare hands using the umbrella technique. Sion cracked his teeth again looking at Nihilus's lightsaber, taking it as if it were his own. Seeing his blade being stolen, as if a part of him was violated, Nihilus got angry; he let his rage and hatred to flow through him, filling his body with adrenaline and dark side power. He got free of Sion's Force whirlwind unleashing a telekinetic blast, demolishing a couple of Sith assassins, and slamming Sion by another stone wall.

As he landed on his knees and got up, he retracted his lightsaber's crimson blade placing it back to his belt; as Sion barely stood up from the floor, he choked the Marauder the dark side of the Force, lifting him up in the air, taking his opponent's lightsaber.

Claiming the fallen foe's weapon, he telekinetically slammed Sion by the Academy's centre chamber's ceiling, by the right wall, the left one, and once again hitting the Marauder by the ceiling. The impact implanted Sion for five seconds in the ceiling, and then he slowly collapsed on the floor.

Nihilus tightened his both fists covered by his black cloves priming another telekinetic blast; as Sion shook his head hardly opening his hideous rotten eyes, a straight wave of telekinetic energy blasted his body through three rooms, shattering his flesh, tearing apart his body parts.

Has he killed the infamous Marauder, has he failed his Sith Master, he wondered himself of the consequences of his possible failure. Sion did not die, though, he survived,

"Don't be so happy of your doing, I cannot be killed.", he watched the Sith Marauder's body parts floating in the air, attaching themselves back together. That was the power which Traya described in her stories; five things kept Sion to be functional--hate, rage, pain, the dark side, and his telekinetic power.

As the Sith Marauder came back, he quickly pulled his own lightsaber back from his opponent's fingers. Nihilus took again his lightsaber, reactivating it, ready to face the fearsome Marauder.

For their impressive duel they had in the Academy, Sion deactivated his own lightsaber’s llama, putting the lightsaber’s hilt back to the belt.

“You are very powerful in the Force. I haven’t met such as you since the fall of the first empire I served.”

“Lord Exar Kun was the strongest Sith of his time, yet it took him more time than you to defeat me in raw Force power and subdue me when I defied him. You are even stronger than Lord Revan himself.”

“Although, I have to confess that your skills with a lightsaber are sloppy.”

“What can I say, I’m training just for a few years, Lord Sion.”

The Marauder had disdain for meaningless discussions and resumed to the subject,

“Let’s stick to the main goals of our conversation.”

“As you say, Lord Sion.”, Nihilus approached the Marauder shaking their hands,

“Let’s inform your Master about our new army of Sith.”

“Then it is done.”, he said as Sion’s assassins were ready for their leader’s order,

“Prepare, we’re leaving Korriban.”, the Marauder instructed his personal assassins.

Nihilus came out of the Academy side by side with Darth Sion walking on the crackle soil and lifeless cold sand.

As they headed to the transport ship, Nihilus tried talking with Sion, although the Sith Marauder rarely spoke and he did it only for concrete talks.

They returned in the Valley of the Dark Lords, and the whispers that haunted Nihilus and his dead men, they were gone; his trespassing was forgotten, his presence was accepted.

“Now, let’s go from this wretched place and go on Malachor.”, he gazed at Korriban’s tombs, ready for a new destiny.

The Decepter penetrated Malachor’s obnoxious atmosphere as perpetual flashes of lightning emerged and faded away.

At the Academy’s spaceship port, a pair of Sith Guards was waiting for them.

“At last, Malachor.”, Sion watched the Academy’s imposing but mysterious structure, sensing the dark side energy bursting from inside as he laid his rotten fingers on its walls.

The Sith Assassins were told personally by his Master to come in the Proving Grounds, while he and Sion in the Core. The Marauder agreed with Lord Traya’s terms and followed the Master’s student into the planet’s dark side heart.

Deep within the darkness, Lord Traya sensed Sion’s presence, although she could not feel that of Nihilus.

As the two descended passing the claw altar, Nihilus’s Master was awaiting, disappointed,

“Look, Sion’s here.”, Nihilus bowed his head for his mentor,

“You defied my word!”, she gripped her apprentice with the Force,

“Mas-chhhk, chaaa!”, he groaned placing his hands at his neck.

Traya used the dark side torturing him with purple Force lightning, quarrelling with him; then she let him free of her Force grasp. Nihilus was puzzled of why she did that,

“Why, Master?”, he was brought on his knees, trembling,

“You may have completed the task for which you were assigned with, but you disobeyed my will.”

Sion looked at them, but said nothing to prevent their argue, for him the verbal and physical violence was something normally.

“Isn’t what a Sith does?”, he asked his teacher,

“When you have a great goal and can be achieved, yes, but not what you have done there.”

“Treachery, manipulation, isn’t that of a Sith, that’s what I thought.”

“I did not punish you for your mere disobedience. These traits such as betrayal and deception are the foremost tools of a Sith to a certain purpose.”, she explained to him,

“You were punished because you do not know how to use these tools, and when.”, she looked at Nihilus with superiority and indifference,

“Yes, Master.”, he stood up, barely recovering from the purple lightning sparkles that crossed through all of his body and made him to collapse on the altar’s cold floor.

“Who are you, if may I ask?”, Sion said watching her as she wrangled her apprentice.

The old woman took off her hood; withered pale face, black eyes, and white hair,

“You. . .”, Sion said as if he has seen her face before,

“I know you.”

Nihilus stared at both, curious of their conversation, and what mystery revolved around Traya that the Marauder knew.

“We fought in the Great Sith War as enemies. I remember your face. You were Kreia, a Jedi Master of the Council.”

The fine old woman put the black hood back on her head covering her half of the face after she revealed her identity,

“I was once of them, indeed. But every man is subjected to the process of change, even a Jedi.”

The Marauder hated the Jedi with all of his heart, and Traya was,

“A broken Jedi, that’s what you are.”, Sion said to her with vile and hate activating his lightsaber to strike her down by chopping off her head; Traya predicted his action with the Force and quickly took it from his hands with her telekinetic abilities. Traya Force-gripped Sion lifting him up in the air, burning his decayed flesh with intense purple lightning bursts; Sion’s body resisted her destructive sparks and took back his lightsaber from Traya’s left fragile hand, taking advantage of her overconfidence.

“Another must learn what is the price for disobedience!”, she said slamming his body by the claw altar’s parts and the cold floor.

Traya crunched his body with the Force, breaking his old bones; Sion felt the agonizing pain of his fractured limbs, accepting Traya’s story about severing her ties with the Jedi Order.

“Stop, Lord Traya.”, he said with his knees being torn,

“I see now the truth about your 'claim'.”

“Good, then.”, she looked at the Marauder as he fused back together his fractured limbs at the same shape they were before.

“You are unique, Sith Lord, you know that?”

“’Unique’?”

“Your hate and rage is what keeps you ‘alive’. You have so much promise, Marauder.”

“I could teach you aspects of the Force that a few are privileged to know.”

The Marauder thought to his rich past; of his victories and losses, of his ups and downs. Since his life as a Sith in Exar Kun’s service and that of Darth Revan’s, Sion knew only two things—the battlefield and how to carry a lightsaber in his hands when faced an enemy. Force skill and knowledge was what he needed the most, and this woman might have offered him the things now he wished them to have.

“Take me under your wings, Lord Traya. Teach me the hidden aspects of the dark side of the Force.”

“So I will, Lord Sion.”

A Peek Into Past

Chapter III

His black robe fluttered; his eyes were icy cold as usually, somewhat being distant from the people around him or the room in which he was staying.

He sat on the softy brown chair looking through the window at the lightning storms of the unbearable landscape that constantly were hitting Malachor's surface.

He was there for some time, staring for a couple of hours at the harrowing landscape; his perceptions altered with the Force, he drew in his consciousness out of his body watching the planet with the eye of the mind.

He saw the storm beasts fighting one with each other, scratching their skin, sinking their fangs into themselves. He took notice of the world’s heavy atmosphere, the crackle soil, the perpetual flashes of lightning that were burning the cold surface. Even now he could hear the screams of all those whom he devoured to quell his immeasurable hunger.

The world’s barren landscape reminded him of certain things, something familiar in his eyes despite the fact he never set foot on the planet before.

Since his Master and his mate apprentice were discussing to know each other better, Nihilushad enough time for thinking in his gloomy chamber.

Nihilus stood relaxed on his softly cortosis chair watching the bizarre weather, sunk into thoughts. The uncanny weather pierced his heart, taking the past events back into present. His eyes focused on the window, his mind, drawn into it. His memories were like a black blue vortex, spinning to no end in his imagination.

He saw the world Onderon through the vortex of imagination, his home.

It was like any other normal day at the Malgan Market. Every weapon, relic, or miscellaneous merchant tried to take a good credit on their stuff.

Though business was hard, Vodan's father knew how to handle customers and take a lot of value, he had enough experience in the work field. These days were the best for Cylnus's business as the worlds were at war. Cylnus took some good credits for his weapon stand. He has done the family's work since the ancient Republic's times.

With Onderon's crisis, Cylnus was forced seldom times to make arrangements with mercenaries, crime lords, or bounty hunters.

Cylnus had anything for anyone who were ready to instill conflicts. Accuracy laser blasters, Force pikes, lightsaber pieces, natural lightsaber crystals, enchanted stones, cortosis sabers, average sized spaceship parts, field mines, sonic grenades, ion grenades, astromech droids, practically everything a man wanted to have.

With all the credits Cylnus had on the stuff he sold, he couldn't afford a stable home for his family. That was their home and their only source of income.

"A client, my son. Go and see what does he want."

"Yes, dad."

Vodan's father hurt his back yesterday when he tried lifting up a heavy box that contained a mesh alloy suit.

"Yes, what do you wish?", he watched the green Twi'lek stranger dressed in a dark robe,

"A red lightsaber crystal and a few field mines if you don't mind.", the alien's voice sounded deep and quite imposing,

"Right away, sir.", he went into the weapon store searching for one as his father lay inside with his hurt back groaning in silence to not disturb their clients.

The Weapon Store was much big, with a room with three brown beds, one for him, for his father and his mother, a locker for laser guns, for suits, his father even had a work bench for those who wished to fix their weapons.

Vodan took it from the crystal box; of course there were a variety of colors, blue, orange, green, yellow, purple, white, grey, but the client ordered a red one.

He came at the alien bringing the crimson crystal, placing on the stand's onderonian ironed table. The Twi'lek asked for its value,

"How much does it cost?", the alien said holding his black hood on his face.

"Five hundred of credits."

"Here.", the alien put them on the table taking the crystal and the four field mines.

"A good day, then.", he watched the green Twi'lek's back as he left.

The clients never ended, day and night, especially on Onderon which was a good weaponry source for visitors and its inhabitants.

This day, however, it was, although, too silent. There were clients at the stand, but their number was small in comparison with most days.

Vodan believed that his work for today was done and could do something in his spare-time. All that changed when a mysterious figure came before his very eyes; a two-legged bizarre creature, very ugly at first sight, carrying a weird staff, accompanied by another four-legged freaky creature.

The stranger wore a dark robe too just like the last client, though Vodan could see the down part of his awkward hands. He saw the alien's pale pointed nose and ears; his hairless white face marked with strange symbols.

"Do you sell any spaceship parts?", the alien held his scepter,

"What 'parts', may I ask?", he looked at the alien's scepter shaking into his hands.

The pale alien took it from his hidden pockets, showing it to him. It was a strange device, it even moved a little before it exploded spilling green blood over his stand table.

Vodan never saw such technology before, not even the ancient myths had such legends,

"Sorry, I...don't..."

"Excuse us for interrupting you, then.", the strange alien ran with his pet from the stand, suddenly disappearing as they appeared.

These were the last clients for today it seemed, and Vodan couldn't wait to see his mother,Kashya Tenebb.

Kashya was a peace maker of her own onderonian foundation known as the 'Hope', both with funds from her husband's and people's. Her movement was insignificant for the entire worlds outside the solar system of Onderon, now that the galaxy was more worried about theMandalorian threat and waiting what will Revan do to stop them.

Despite her great position, Kashya choosing to be a moral example for people, struggling to live in the unpleasant condition of her family, and her man agreed with the idea if his wife could bring an improvement to the galactic civilizations.

As he moved some boxes out of the store to the stand, a space shuttle penetrated into the planet's atmosphere, flying over Iziz.

Vodan heard its nozzle sounds, saw the ship model in the sky as it came near the spaceship port, and he knew it was his mother's personal ship.

"Dad, mother is back.", he said to his father without apparent excitement, though on the inside he was more than happy to see her again.

"Wait for me. Don't go.", Cylnus got up placing his right hand on his hurt back.

He and his father ran to her; a crowd of people was around her, asking her for autographs, cheering her name,

"Kashya, Kashya, Kashya!", she smiled for them as the wind fluttered her yellow long hair, and the rays of the sun reflected into her blue eyes.

"Mom, mom, here!", he smiled and loudly called for her mother; Cylnus did the same but it was quite hard for him, as his chicks blushed when he put too much effort standing on his feet.

She was beautiful both inside and outside, but her greatest achievement was her son, Vodan. She was very proud with him, and she always said something about her son in her countless conferences.

Vodan was the reason she tried to improve the civilizations; he was a good young man, a respectful honest person.

"My Vodan!", she said excited hugging her son, caressing his face.

"Kashya!", he took her in his arms, kissing her lips.

"How're you guys?", she laughed to see them,

"You know, mom. Just merchant stuff as usually.", he walked along his father and mother back to their Weapon Store.

"What happened, Cyl?", Kashya checked her husband's back to see what's wrong with him,

"Hurt my back tryin' to take a box. I'll be fine soon, don't worry, honey.", he groaned a bit feeling the pain of his back.

"I have a surprise for you, guys."

"What?", Vodan asked,

"We can leave Onderon to go on Coruscant. We can leave this behind."

Though the sudden change frightened Cylnus,

"Not sure about that. What are we gonna do there?", he blinked and moaned for his lack of sleep,

"We have an assured place on Coruscant. And Vodan will have finally the chance to go to a university."

"You're the wise one in our relationship, not me. Whether what you want to do, I know you'll do the best thing."

A Chiss male with a fancy uniform interrupted their conversation,

"Greetings, peacemaker Kashya Tenebb, I am Akynto Bees, the representative sent by the Republic. I have come to take you."

"Strange, I am sure they informed me otherwise."

"Plans changed, my lady Kashya."

"Then let's go guys.", she called them,

"I am afraid they only want to know you better for a few moments. Your husband may come if he wants to."

"This is outrageous, representative Bees.", she frowned,

"That's politics. Always this happens in politics."

Kashya told her husband to come with her while her son to take care of the Weapon Store.

Voices woke him up; panic and pain hung in the refreshing atmosphere of morning.

Men, women, and children cried with tears in their eyes.

Vodan got up to see what's happening, coming out from the gloomy Weapon Store.

"I can't believe she's really gone.", a blond hair man lay his shoulder over her wife's left shoulder, mourning.

"Kashya is dead, people. We must do something!", a man shouted trying to draw their attention.

"No...", Vodan kneeled placing his hands on the ground,

"WHY!?", he punched the ground with his right fist, groaning.

As Vodan wondered himself what happened with his parents, the Chiss figure once more arrived on Onderon.

The people yelled asking for answers from the blue alien as he walked in the Malgan Market, though they were held to distance by the Chiss's four bodyguards wearing Republic armors and stun batons.

The gentle Chiss came to Vodan tasked to tell him about their parents's death. He saw the blue alien before him as he cried,

"I was sent by the Republic to tell you about the tragic death of your parents. It seems that the leader of Revanchists, Revan, he is responsible for this. He had someone to fire the space shuttle of your parents."

"'Revan', how can it be?", he slowly got up on his feet, groaning again,

"The politics is very dangerous for people as your mother.", the Chiss added,

"Though, we will take you to Barcx's Children House. Since you're eighteen years old and with no studies in marketing, the orphanage will be just a good place for you.", the Chiss said with the hands behind his back.

"Then, let's go.", Vodan wiped his tears.

After a few hours of walking, they arrived at the orphanage,

"That's it, boy.", Bees the Chiss pressed the door's button to call for the one who ran the place,

"Alright, I'm comin'!", Bees heard his voice through the door's communication speaker.

The door opened automatically and a bulky Besalisk appeared,

"What do you want!?", he crackled his teeth seeing the two,

"I brought him to the orphanage. Another has lost his parents."

"I see...",the Besalisk looked at the boy when the Chiss smiled with vile.

"So, can I let him on your hands, Barcx?"

The four-armed creature laughed,

"Yes,of course."

"Then we're done.", the dark blue Chiss turned his back and left.

"Get inside, boy.", he said to him frowning his gaze,

Vodan was speechless and did what the Besalisk ordered.

At the first look the orphanage was nowhere near to what Bees described him, let alone that it was a remote building hidden deep in the Onderon's woods. The place was a real catastrophe, with bare life conditions.

Inside was cold, the tables were rusty, and there was some droid parts garbage on the cool floor.

"What's this place?"

"Your new 'home', boy.", the alien laughed leaving him while someone else was coming to lead him to the Children Chambers.

A vile Neimodian with dirt on his red suit grabbed him, almost squashing his left arm, kicking his butt.

Vodan walked the dark and spooky halls with the Neimodian approaching a large room withmany people of his age, a few humans and the rest of them Wookiees, Bothans, Zabraks, two red Chagrians, a Gektl, and an Elomin.

"Here is your new mate.", the filthy alien kicked his butt again, closing the door after.

The room had thirteen floating beds, a heat generator barely functioning to keep the warm inside, three seal windows in the left side, seven red light bulbs on the grey ceiling, surveillance cameras in each corner and at the door. In the room there was a flying drone too, instructed to punish the children if they defied Barcx or his 'employees'.

"We have a fresh, here, boys.", an eighteen Gektls boy smirked swinging his red tail up and down,

Vodan couldn't say a word to the hellish alien,

"Did the Krath eat your tongue?", he smirked again.

Vodan lay by the closed door, his heart beat faster, his blood warmed up, he was scared.

"Boys, let's initiate our fresh into the group.", he said to them silently laughing.

They approached Vodan, they took off his pants, and dripped a bucket of dirty water on his face. The aliens were amused for his embarrassing situation,

"Is it enough Krell?", a Wookiee was not sure of the shame the new one was subjected to,

"Let him alone, Gassaj.", the Elomin spoke him on his right side farthest bed,

"He knows now how're the things here. He might be more useful to you if you'd just leave him.", the Elomin gazed at the seal windows with indifference,

"I think the Elomin's right, let him go.", the Gektl felt that he was persuaded by an unnatural force to stop bullying Vodan.

"Thanks, who're you?", he saw the Elomin approaching,

"Gyz, just Gyz.", his uniform was white and his black eyes were like sucked of life,

"Thanks Gyz."

"But what're you doing you here in Barcx's Selection Group Area?", the saviour alien asked,

"'Selection Group Area'?", Vodan kept his eyes half-closed being curious,

"From this place we are picked to join the Neo-Crusade movement, or sold as slaves.", the alien put his palm over his mouth,

"They are analyzing our bodies, and make the last choice."

"How did you make it, Gyz? I see you know more than these guys. Sure you did something. You don't have a body fighter."

The alien doubted for a moment, hesitating, clasping his hands,

"Don't tell anyone, but I can use the Force. That's how I remained untouched."

Vodan blinked thrice taking a deep breath, sighing,

"Then take us out of here.", Vodan desperately grabbed the alien's shoulders,

"I can't. At best I can do this from this place.", the alien shrugged off but turned back to him

"These guys have ysalmiri, and can use them if a Force sensitive tries to escape. It is their method to protect themselves."

"What about the sensitives?"

"KILLED without a doubt. Either because they would have defied them and ruin their business, or they would have become galactic threats."

As they spoke, Gyz felt a disturbing presence,

"What is it, Gyz?", he asked the alien to see if he is alright,

"I see a dark figure, a Chiss dressed in a Republic suit.", Gyz noticed the alien's skin and his four bodyguards,

"The representative Bees.", Vodan said to him.

Gyz used his Force perception as the Chiss moved through the isolated halls with his armed fancy men reaching into the Besalisk's office.

Gyz knew there was something wrong with the Chiss, and decided to read his thoughts.

Bees was no Republic representative, he was working as a personal bounty hunter for the Crime Lord Barcx on Muunulist who was tasked to destroy Kashya, as she was a threat for intergalactic crime business. He lied to their son, framing-up the rebel Jedi Knight Revan, a good goat since he was seen as a menace for the galaxy by the Jedi Order.

Gyz explained to him as concrete and short as possible; Vodan was infuriated, punching the part of wall next to first seal window with his slender fist. Deep inside he blamed himself for it, he'd have wished to stop his parents from leaving and see the Chiss impostor dead for good.

Just as they talked, the Chiss with the men and the chief Besalisk entered in the room,

"The Selection has begun.", the alien Elomin said.

Barcx's man, Bees, he had his four bodyguards to see who is going to be a slave or aMandalorian warrior,

"Begin the Selection.", the Chiss added staring at the isolated landscape by green trees through the second seal window with a cold look, petting his soft beard.

The Nautolan bodyguards took every eighteen years old one, forcing them to stand in a line lying their back by the cold unpleasant wall. The bodyguards took notice of their limbs, the strength of the muscles, the durability of their hand and leg bones too.

The Wookiees passed chosen as Mandalorian warriors, same for the Bothans or the Zabraks.

The procedure was done in fifteen minutes, and the Chiss was ready to tell them who are the slaves,

"Chagrians, you did not pass."

The Gektl Krell smirked unnoticed, sure of himself to his own rank in the hierarchy of the Neo-Crusaders.

"The Devaronian, you did not pass as well.", the Chiss coughed for the small mass of dust which reached into his lungs.

Vodan was afraid, he hated wars and slavery, so he hid under a bed to not be taken.away; the Besalisk was old, and he was forgetting many things day by day, he might have forgotten about Vodan. However, the Chiss did not give anything about them, for him they were simple 'living products', he had no reason to keep in mind their faces nor their names, he didn't want to get familiar with them, that would have only ruined his job.

The Gektl was enraged; he jumped over a Nautolon's back choking the bodyguard's head with his green tail twisting it.

"STOP HIM!", the Chiss shouted as the other three bodyguards caught Krell,

"I will do it!", the Chiss picked up the dead Nautolon's stun baton, electrifying the Gektl.

With the Gektl subdued, Gyz followed,

"Take the Elomin too.", Bees pointed at him with his right hand finger covered by a white glove.

Gyz was scared, and there was only one way to escape this.

The Elomin took power from the Force, playing with the Chiss's, Besalisk's, and Nautolons'sminds, skipping over his selection.

"Sorry, Vodan", Gyz said, when the Chiss came at a bed and saw Vodan.

"No, please!", the Nautolons grabbed him by the arms,

"I'll never forget what you've done to me.", he said to the Elomin looking now with hatred and despise at him.

The door automatically closed, and Gyz was the only left in the darkness of room. Gyz clasped his hands and mourned inside his soul,

"Sorry, I didn't want to do that. One day you might understand."

They escorted Vodan to a slave ship next to the warrior ship outside of Barcx's Children House,

"Here's your credits from the Mandalorians, mister Kilp.", Bees said to the Besalisk,

"A pleasure.", Kilp responded taking the credits from Bess's hands.

Akynto Bees entered into the ship, ordering his men to take Vodan in the Slave Room imprisoning him in a circular stasis cage.

Bees instructed the ship's pilot to go within in the Malachor system, though somewhere safe from the war.

The engines turned on, the nozzles's flames burst, releasing vibrations that spread throughout the woods, and the space ship ascended in the sky in a blink, penetrating Onderon'satmosphere, disappearing into the vastness of galaxy.

After hours of space traveling, the Chiss finally made it, the Malachor system.

Bees sitting on his chair, contacted the Mandalorian ship's Commander, Jad Kay Two,

"Commander Kay, I brought you the promised slaves."

"Excellent.", his voice sounded through the tridimensional hologram.

Bees turned off the ship's comlink and had his pilot to land inside Kai's Mothership.

As they landed inside, Bees released Vodan and the others from their stasis cages and came out with the slaves in the Hangar Room--a hundred meters compartment full of imposingMandalorian hardened warriors.

When slaves were brought on his ship, Jad always came to see them to be sure he isn't fooled.

They were held in handcuffs connected by a blue luminous chain-like.

Jad inspected them, studying their body language, to know what they were capable of or not.

The two red Chagrians were scared, the Gektl Krell was angry but terrified, where Vodan was filled with anger and hate, looking with disdain at the Commander.

Jad sensed the slave's apathy and wanted to enrage him,

"Go and clean our ship, slave."

"No!", Vodan crossed his arms cracking his teeth,

"Really?", unobserved by the slave, he had two Mandalorians to torture him.

"What're you doing!?', he screamed out loud,

The two stunned him with their batons, scratching his right eye with the hot touching of a Mandalorian blade.

"Aaah!", Vodan yelled as the blade's edge touched his eye.

Then he learned that hope and faith was in vain, no one came to help them.

Where were the fighters of freedom, peace and justice, where were these so-called Jedi?

Yet his torture ended when Jad's inferior came to him,

"My lord, Mandalore the Ultimate contacted me a few moments earlier. He ordered us to go on Malachor Five."

"Also he said that the Mothership slaves should go there too. If we fall in battle at least the slaves will die with us at once."

"Then, let's go.", Jad turned his back leaving the slaves in the hangar room,

"Men, take them into the Prison Chambers.", Jad said to them while he was leaving with his inferior.

They were in another stasis cage, though much bigger, as well with many more slaves.

As Vodan tried to know them better, after another a few hours of space travel, Jad's Mandalorian Mothership alongside others arrived on Malachor Five prepared for the battle with the Revanchist forces led by Revan, his friend Alek, and the general, Meetra Surik. In the Commander Bridge room, Jad was contacted again by Mandalore the Ultimate,

"Commander Jad, escort the slaves in our transport slave ships and bring them on Malachor. There might be 'behind surprises' when we battle Revan."

"Yes, Mandalore the Ultimate.", Jad ended the transmission.

Mandalore the Ultimate and his men were so sure of their victory that they did not bother with the slaves's fate.

As the battle began and the slave transport ships were brought on the dark side world, Mandalore the Ultimate was wrong, his doing was an utter failure.

Realizing the war's favor balance, Mandalore the Ultimate ordered all the slave transport shipsto be escorted on a remote planet known only by them.

It was too late, Mandalore the Ultimate died by Revan's hands, and the planet was engulfed by the destructive ray beams of the Mass Shadow Generator activated by Meetra Surik.

And now his mind reached out from the vortex of thoughts, back to reality.

"Lord Nihilus, Traya has requested your presence.", a Dark Jedi entered into his room.

The Sith Lord stood up from his brown chair and left the room with the lone fallen Jedi reaching into the dark Trayus Core,

"What's thy bidding, Master Traya?"

The Unleash of Hunger

Chapter IV

"What do you ask of me, Master?", Nihilus said, bowed in the Trayus Core,

"Finally a real Sith task for you outside of this planet.", Traya added,

"What task, Master?"

Darth Traya had a special plan with Nihilus, a trial to test his loyalty for the Sith Order, to see what he would do. She knew that he was not truly put face to face with an enemy into a real situation. So far she has simply moulded him into darkness, building a fragile dark shell over his soul and mind, but it was his decision if he'd have totally succumbed to the dark side or he was going to reject it.

"Do you remember when you have told me about the bounty hunter Akynto Bees, the one who made you a slave?"

He remembered the Chiss's face with enmity,

"What's with him?"

"It would seem he has taken the Crime Lord Barcx's position short after the Mandalorian Wars when the Muun Barcx was discovered and arrested by the Jedi Order."

"Where is he?", he added tightening his fingers,

"Once the Muun was under arrested, Bees moved the headquarters from Muunulist toShyeera."

"Shyeera?"

"I am not surprised you did not hear about it."

"Shyeera is a bare arctic planet located into Hoth system.", she added,

"A planet once populated by an enigmatic species which disappeared mysteriously. What remained after them are the large magnificent structures that now are being used by the Crime Lord Akynto Bees."

"Fine, then.", he stood up leaving the Trayus Core whereas Sion was instructed to go and hunt down a Jedi Academy within a large artificial asteroid in the Coruscant solar system.

Though they had different missions, there was only one means of transport, the Decepter. The space ship was enough big for all of Sion's assassins and Nihilus; a couple of Dark Jedi came to go with the Marauder too.

Both of them sat in the back, Nihilus in the right, Sion in the left.

"So what do you have to do?", Nihilus added as the ship turbulence shook their bodies,

"There's a place filled with Jedi scum, as the Master said to me. She told me we must strike fear into their hearts, but if someone survives, we should let them to live."

"I don't understand her reason, but she might have a secret agenda."

"'Spare them', I would kill them all."

"Here, I agree with you.", Sion cracked his teeth looking through the window.

The Decepter made its way first in the cold Hoth system, penetrating Shyeera's dense but bearable atmosphere.

Most of the world was covered by snow, but it was light and almost dusty. Despite the lands were being covered by snow, it was enough warm to keep up a good condition for the life harbor, even for plants and animals. The source of planet's warming conditions came from a pack of colossal generators, located near the Crime Lord Akynto Bees's Headquarters, that caught the sun rays outside the planet converting them into electrical energy and warm.

Shyeera had two 'cold' suns--Leyos and Ycela , and a single jungle-moon--Shykx.

The very few cartographers that have studied this planet, its suns and its moon, they came to the single conclussion that the mysterious species found a way to harness the cold power of the two stars. The species of Shyeera built a massive generator out of the planet's orbit, as large as a warship; it was cubic and had mounted shielding devices to protect it from celestial bodies. The cartographers believed that the unknown species colonized the world than evolving on it because of the extraterrestrial massive generator and those on the planet.

Despite having a jungle-moon, the planet was stuck between the two suns, and there was no night, only day.

The landscape was covered by many green trees, huge mountains, some lands without most of snow, their soil's color was brown and fertile.

The Decepter flied over the Shyeerean lands with the cloaking generator activated to not be detected by Akynto's radars.

Nihilus and Sion saw the tough ice collapsing in water, the lakes, the trees full of life, the animals that ran and roared, the lands blown by the calm breeze--they sensed the life bursting.

As they gazed at the teeming scenery, the pilot landed somewhere far away from the Crime Lord's headquarters, somewhere in a valley hidden by the mountains in northern part of the Crime Lord's base.

The ship's engines vibrated and the back trap door opened in the air. They could not land on the soil since the Chiss had installed secret remote devices for ship detection.

As Nihilus placed his hands on the trap door's edges, Sion spoke,

"This is the place, the Ice Mountains."

"You'll be on your own. Lord Traya believes you'll succeed alone in completing this task.", Sion said,

"And if I won't succeed.", Nihilus asked and Sion replied,

"Replaced with no second thought.", he cracked his teeth.

He was at peace with it, this was one of the risks Traya has told him; Nihilus knew he will succeed, he knew he must to.

Nihilus took his hands off the edges, he inhaled and exhaled for three seconds,then lunched from ten meters high decreasing the impact with the ground by harnessing the Force. Nihilus reached down as his feet threw snow in the air, leaving a large rounded hole in snow. He looked at the ship's nozzles once more before it left the wondrous world full of life.

Nihilus was walking the dusty snow and peeves. He could hear the birds that were flying over the colossal Ice Mountains singing in harmony, he heard their echoes spreading across the mountains.

Nihilus climbed up the northern valley of the Ice Mountains, laying his hands on trees to not slide down. His black gloves covered with partial snow; his black boots with mud.

But in trees--a danger was lurking--insatiable purple eyes were watching him, a mouth muttered silently, sharp teeth cracked, big nose puffed, claws sunk into the tree's branches, tongue oozed with acid.

As he climbed up, a ferocious wild four-legged beast barked at him as it jumped on him, both rolling down with speed. As they went down, Nihilus held with his both hands the creature's hairless blue arms to not get scratched by its sharp claws. He and the creature hit a massive piece of ice and the impact hurled both in different sides, the beast in left, Nihilus in right.

"Enough of this!", Nihilus took his lightsaber from the belt and activated it. The Ice Mountains beast raged unleashing a powerful scream wave of Force pushing the Sith Lord a few meters away slamming his body by an ice rock. Nihilus quickly stood up and threw his blade to slice the beast's head, though it repelled his own lightsaber using again a powerful Force scream.

The beast jumped in the air with its arms wide open ready to slash the Sith Lord's arms with a vertical cut. Through the power of Force, he created a telekinetic shield; the wild creature struck the shield, draining it. As the creature consumed his Force shield, it tried to consume him too; as its orange draining rays touched the man, the creature felt 'nothing', a void, an empty place engulfing to no end. Worse, the beast sensed its strengths leaving it, its very own being consumed by the void; nothing remained, neither flesh nor bones, total annihilation.

After he devoured entirely the Ice Mountains beast, he climbed up again the mountain laying his palms on the trees. When he was at the mountain's top, he stood still, taking a deep breath, feeling the refreshing cold breeze, the air waves touching his own lips; he saw the rays of the two suns, one in his left, one in his right. Relaxing for a few moments his muscles from the fighting stress, clearing his mind of insignificant things, Nihilus then climbed down the mountain on the other side crushing solid snow under his foot leaving footsteps.

As he walked by foot the great distance between the Ice Mountains and Lord Bees's Headquarters, Nihilus used a Force technique learned from Traya to keep his body unaffected by exhaustion by relaxing his limbs.

Fortunately for him, the large woods covered him, unable to be spotted by the Crime Lord.

Meanwhile, in the Chiss's private office, one of the alien's men rushed inside,

"Lord Bees-", the man said looking at the collection of weapons in the alien's right side,

"'Akynto', call me 'Akynto'. I hate when someone calls me on my last name."

"Lord Akynto?"

"Yes, what is it?", the alien added sitting on the chair,

"The Sith, the Sith my lord.", the man gasped,

"What about the Sith?", Akynto clasped his own hands on the desk,

"They have returned, my lord. They just assaulted the asteroid Jedi Academy in the Coruscantsystem. It was completely flattened down."

The Chiss raised his palm and punched the metal table with tightened fist,

"Dammit! These Sith are more annoying than the Jedi, and they can be barely fooled."

"Sir, you could negotiate with them."

Akynto frowned,

"'Negotiate'? These Sith can't be trusted at all, they'd use me and get rid off me with no second thought."

"Sir?..."

"When a Sith asks of you for being their friend, be ready to be backstabbed and cast aside when you're no longer useful.", he sighed clasping his own hands again,

"Who knows if they have something in their twisted mind to pay us a little visit. For greatestprotection, activate the defense weaponry system in the perimeter and mount some turrets outside of it just to be sure enough no one will going to run my business."

"Yes, my lord.", the man bowed and left the office.

The Chiss remained with hands clasped in his dark room, half closing his red icy eyes

"And if that fails, I have a colossal 'ace' hidden in my very 'pockets'."

As Nihilus made his way through the vast forest, he got over a pack of large silver turrets, each with four laser cannon, that constantly moved from left to right beeping, monitoring the area.

Nihilus reached into the power of Force, concentrating on the targets he wanted to destroy.

He brought his mind out of his own body, picturing the turrets's positions.

Nihilus gripped the turrets with the Force.

The massive pressure of his telekinesis power bent the turrets turning them into imperfect metal ball-like objects and then blowing them apart; fire sparks shone in his eyes from the blown turrets spreading in the air.

Nihilus showed himself when the turrets were destroyed, advancing forth in completing his own mission.

Inside the Chiss's headquarters, the same man that entered into the alien's office saw the outside perimeter turrets being mysteriously destroyed with the help of the cameras secretly installed in trees.

"Sir, sir!", the man shouted frightened,

"What is it now!?", Akynto shouted too,

"The outside perimeter turrets are destroyed. There's a Force-user!", he gasped,

"What are you waiting then for fool, alert my troops!", the Crime Lord suddenly stood up to leave his room. The man sounded the general alarm,

"All staff, alert. This is not a drill. Hostile forces detected."

The Crime Lord's troopers got up, preparing their laser blasters, peeling on their masks, and ran toward the large outside door.

"Move, move!", the troopers cried storming while the general alarm was sounding out loud echoing through all the room compartments--from smallest to largest.

Nihilus increased his hearing sense through use of Force, listening to footsteps, loud voices, men breathing at unison; the Sith Lord then used another Force power extending his sight to Akynto Bees's Headquarters--he saw soldiers carrying heavy blaster rifles dressed in brown armors, and black helmets marked with a blue reptile drawing.

Nihilus was ready, he took off his lightsaber powering it up taking the offense stance with the crimson blade in vertical position tightening the hilt with his fingers covered by the black gloves.

As the troopers advanced, they blew apart the trees with their super floating tanks creating a straight path.

While the Crime Lord's troops were violently forging their path, Nihilus spotted a Republic ship in the sky; its nozzles vibrated with high pitch sounds.

The ship immediately blasted the troopers and their menacing combat machines heading at the Crime Lord's Headquarters.

Nihilus felt them, half closing his eyes-- they were Jedi. When he thought things won't get more interesting, it just happened.

Nihilus resumed his walk, making his own way at the criminal base. As he approached the tanks blasted in horizontal line, Nihilus scattered them with a powerful Force wave, blasting them forward in the air along with the corpses of the fallen troopers.

The Headquarters was now visible; its spiral towers releasing perpetual lightnings, the sun rays reflecting in its peak.

When he made it near the base, he saw from a hundred meters distance the Chiss Crime Lord accompanied by four men-three Bothans and one human.

The lust for vengeance gave way to hate and rage, true Sith power!

Nihilus powered up his lightsaber and burst like a supernova trying to catch him. The man in the right side of the Chiss saw sideways a figure with black robe and a shiny red blade running,

"Sir, a Sith, right behind you!", the man was shocked. The Chiss turned his head and saw the Sith Lord, keeping his cool outside,

"To the Prokan, Byju!"

"You three, stay here."

Akynto ran to his personal hangar, built by his men, near his headquarters crunching the snow with his booth.

They entered in hangar and his Neimodian man Byju activated the ship's engines and nozzles, preparing it for departure. The hangar doors opened and the thirty meters ship was ready to take it to the stars.

Nihilus gripped the Prokan with his telekinesis, pulling it down but not destroying it, as he desired to kill the bastard Chiss by his own hands.

Akynto came out with Byju of his ship through the trap door, both quite unaffected at first look.

The Neimodian was frightened changing his eye look,

"Lord Akynto, what now?", the blue alien was speechless and his cool, gone,

"I think we sh-", Akynto heard Byju groaning holding his own neck as he was raised in the air,

"Chhh, ahhh, ckkkkk-", his neck, twisted, his body slammed by a wall of the Chiss's base.

The Chiss blinked twice before he was suspended in the air by the mysterious Sith.

Nihilus pulled the Chiss backward to him with the Force, ready to apply the last blow,

"Please, stop!", the cold alien sensed fear and despair now,

"I can give you anything you want."

"Can you give me back my parents?", his black hood slightly moved with the face bent down at the alien,

"'Parents', what 'parents'?", the alien replied. The Sith Lord took off his dark hood,

"You... It can't be.", the Chiss slowly crawled back seeing a familiar face of the past that he thought it holds no longer any significance.

"I'll give you any treasures you want, but spare me.", the Chiss bent forward on his palms taking a humble position,

"I'm so sorry for your parents loss. Please spare me, Vodan. That's your name, right?", the blue alien started bursting in tears before him,

"Give me a second chance and I swear on my species that I'll change my ways in the honor of your mother and father. I will become a better person.", the Chiss begged for clemency with a child look.

He hooded his face and raised his blade in the air above the Chiss's head,

"Vodan Tenebb died on Malachor that day. I am Darth Nihilus."

As the blade was ready to strike him down, a Jedi lunched from behind,

"Leave him alone, Sith!", Nihilus sensed the Jedi's presence and quickly turned back crossing their blades; both were hooded and neither saw the other's face. The Sith Lord amped his physical strength with the Force trying to break the Jedi's defense; the Jedi maintained his own position until the Sith pushed him a few meters away with the Force.

He gripped the Jedi with his left hand and suspended him into a Force whirlwind with the other hand while he was carrying the lightsaber.

"Did you forget to make the difference between criminals and innocents, Jedi?", Nihilus said spinning the Jedi's body,

"Why do you protect him, a Crime Lord?", he looked at the collapsed Chiss sideways.

"It is the duty of a Jedi to defend those who are weak and cannot defend themselves no matter their acts. All deserve a chance to salvation.", the Jedi stalled charging a telekinetic blast,

"Then defend a criminal and have his blood on your own hands."

"Fall, Sith!", the Jedi blasted the Sith Lord a few meters distance by the Chiss's broken ship interrupting the thirteen meters high whirlwind's rotation. With the whirlwind gone the Jedi fell down hitting the ground with his own back.

Both had their hoods taken off by the impact that crossed through their bodies.

Nihilus stood still a little regaining his consciousness while the Jedi was healing his own back with the light side of the Force.

They both saw each other face as they approached one by another, one was human, one was Elomin,

"Vodan's that you?", the alien said shocked,

"Gyz, you are a Jedi?", he added surprised seeing the Elomin dressed in a brown robe and a typical Jedi armor.

"By the Force, what have the Sith done to you, Vodan?", Gyz felt pain inside the man that he knew once.

"They gave me what I needed. But it looks like for you denying my freedom was not enough, now you will deny me vengeance too?"

"I did many things I am not proud of to survive, but I tried to change myself."

Nihilus and Gyz started walking in a close circle while they were speaking,

"What about me. Do you have any remorse?", Nihilus frowned his eyebrows,

"There's no single day I am not regretting what I have done to you." Gyz looked up to the sky, mourning deep inside his soul,

"And those memories will hunt me for the rest of my life."

"I understand you, Vodan. Just give me your hand, let me help you. Everyone can be saved, no one is beyond redemption.", the Jedi with honesty showed his hand. But the Hunger made back its way to surface, tormenting him, as if his stomach was full of acid burning inside.

"Perhaps some might be beyond redemption.", Nihilus remembered that the Elomin stopped the bullies at the orphanage to make fun of him, and he spared him.

Nihilus straightened his right hand behind, and an all-devouring force was unleashed. The Jedi Knights that were fighting the Chiss's troopers--were all consumed to the bones. Gyz could sense the life-force of troopers and the Force energy of the Jedi leaving them, all dying in terrible agony.

The Hunger was subdued again returning to the darkest depths of his being.

The alien Knight kneeled, crying,

"Dead, they're all dead! How could you!?"

"You made me what I am today. Because of you I remained on Malachor Five.", he pointed at him. Gyz activated his red lightsaber and realized he must face the mistakes of his past embodied into one single being.

"Even if it is against the Jedi creed, some mistakes can be fixed only by the act of sword."

"And I will try to offer you a swift painless death as possible."

Both jumped forward clashing their red blades, constantly performing an amount of strikes--one, two, three, four, five, then leaping backward.

Gyz telekinetically lifted up the broken ship hurling it in the Sith Lord; Nihilus used the Force countering, breaking the Jedi's telekinesis grip. The Elomin leaped over the Chiss's ship--hurled by the Sith Lord--as it came quickly toward him.

Gyz was for the Lord's neck as he jumped charging the lightsaber's deadly blow. Nihilus caught the knight's raw laser with his own bare hands, blasting him with another telekinetic wave.

As the two fought without stopping, the Elomin swayed slightly to the dark side font of power using the Djem So combat style; Nihilus was trained into the art of swift deadly strikes byTraya, employing the Makashi form in battles.

Gyz temporarily surrendered to the darkness executing brutal powerful attacks with his own natural red blade; Nihilus stood focused, making use of light deadly strikes and the Force as the Jedi kept to avoid his attacks.

As their duel intensified, the Chiss Akynto Bees slowly took it off from their sight heading to another space shuttle kept in the hangar.

Akynto opened the ship's trap door quickly entering inside, setting it the autopilot mode. As the ship started lifting up in the air, the Chiss smiled inside the ship taking out a hidden remote control from his own pockets,

"Perhaps you've ruined my business, but I'll ruin your lives.", the ship left the hangar reaching out of Shyeera's atmosphere.

Their fight was so intense Nihilus didn't even see his parents's murder getting away as he held his own lightsaber in defence stance.

As the two continued their fierce duel, the Chiss's Headquarters was shaken at its foundations.

Both stopped--Gyj felt the overwhelming earth vibrations--Nihilus felt and saw a presence through the eye of Force beneath the ancient construction, a very large massive form of life emanating concentrated waves of internal heat.

A scream rage blew apart the base, and a colossal beast made its way up from a hole, free of its restraints.

"By...the...Great Holocron...", the Jedi watched the beast with awe as his heart beat faster and blood pumped quicker,

"The 'Yzelgnorr' in flesh and blood.", the Elomin remained silent.

The Yzelgnorr was a one thousand meters tall monster--black eyes, bulky body, brown skin, sharp claws and sharp fangs. No one knew the truth behind the beast's existence, but its purpose was guarding the Yard Power Generators near the ancient structure.

The giant creature raised its arm in the air, ready to stomp the ground--both warriors leaped in the air away from the beast's range. The wild creature's yellow salive dripped down its fangs.

The Elomin Jedi was overwhelmed by fear of death--Gyz half surrendered to his inner darkness channelling the dark side energies within him--the Elomin burst with rage unleashing from his fingertips destructive green lightning bolts.

The lightning bolts hit the Yzelgnorr but its solid shell repelled them down burning the snowy soil, its rare plants and almost everything near vicinity. Nihilus caught the bolts with bare hands reflecting them back, disippating themselves; Gyz surrounded himself with an electric Force shield countering the power of his own lightning bolts.

"My most powerful attack, and the Yzelgnorr still stands on its feet.", Gyz looked at the beast through his own Force shield slowly stepping back.

The beast roared out loud straightening its left hand at the Jedi, catching the alien with its claw.

The Yzelgnorr opened his stench mouth swallowing in one bit the brave knight, crushing his body with its teeth.

Facing death, an image with Traya from past appeared into his mind,

"There are very horrible dark side powers of the Force, such one would be Force lightning. To unleash such destructive dark energies in the external reality, you must let your flesh immersed into dark side, and emotions such as anger, rage, and hatred will help you. Let these energies devour your body inside, and when the opportunity appears, unleash them."

The Force lightning--as Traya explained to him during his initiation--it is one of the greatest Sith powers, capable of wrapping up the worlds around and unleash terrible calamities.

Nihilus succumbed to his inner darker emotions--his body invaded by the dark side energies, penetrating his blood cells with dark side power.

A dark aura enveloped his body completely, and gigantic potent dark lighting bolts appeared from his fingers. The lightning bolts hit the Yzelgnorr's shelled skin breaking through its body. Nihilus's lightning bolts damaged the beast's organs, disintegrating the wild creature--its body turned to ash, scattering in the air.

The mission was a half success, but Hunger called again. The Hunger was more severe than the last--Nihilus made total submission to his Hunger.

Transparent trendils-like appeared from his body. His Hunger touched every living thing around him--it was still not enough. Nihilus gripped all the planet under his greedy grasp, devouring the world, devoiding it of life-force and Force energy--all forms of life disappeared,Shyeera was turned into a sucked dry world leached by colors--a void in the Force.

Nihilus's eyes turned black, his face became pale, his muscles atrophied. He howled in pain--the waves of his scream reached throughout the galaxy. Echoes of extreme agony spread all over Malachor Five.

Nihilus took his portable comlink contacting Traya,

"The Crime Lord escaped, but the planet is destroyed, stripped off Force."

Traya's red tridimensional hologram beeped,

"You have fulfilled your task, then. Resist, apprentice, Lord Sion will appear in any time starting from now."

Just as the dark woman promised, Sion arrived on Shyeera with extra-forces of Sith, with many space ships after the attack on the asteroid Jedi Academy..

As they penetrated the world's atmosphere, Sion saw the desert landscape, sensing 'nothingness'--there was no light and no darkness--he felt a black hole in the Force, complete annihilation.

Sion and his men landed next to Nihilus--the trap door opened and the Marauder came out with a couple of his assassins--he was speechless to the great power of man.

"Get inside we're leaving.", the walking corpse cracked his teeth entering inside with Nihilus.

After two hours of travelling, space ships penetrated Malachor's vapid atmosphere. Nihilus and Sion came out of their ship heading the Trayus Core.

All in the academy saw the physical deformed body of Traya's first apprentice. The old blind woman predicted this would happen when the apprentice shall pledge his will entirely to the dark side and his Hunger.

Though he had the salvation--his Master offered him the answer to eternal life,

"There is an ancient technique that will help you in transferring your essence into a vessel."

"What technique?", his body began to crumble,

"An ancient technique the long-gone Dark Lord Darth Andeddu created. A very knowledgeable Sith in the ways of the dark side."

"Teach me.", he added as Traya hesitated for a moment,

"Unfortunately, such technique is not known to me.", her words made him angry, but an answer came,

"Fortunately the Dark Lord stored his own spirit into a holocron."

"Where is this holocron?"

"His holocron resides on Prakith--the world where he had set himself as the 'Immortal God-King of Prakith'."

However, with her apprentice's sudden illness, she spent no more talking and quickly thought to a solution to keep her own student's disease under control, at least temporarily,

"Enough of this. First, we must support your body still 'functional'."

Abruptly her apprentice collapsed on the floor; his eyes softly closed, was he dead,

"Dark Jedi take him to the Medical Center."

The Secret of Eternal Life and Destruction

Chapter V

The black eyes slowly opened, through them you could hear and see the old medical droids fixing his deteriorated body--there was no pain steroids--and you could feel his suffering, you could hear his agonizing screams, you could feel how the cold blooded droids cut off with their shoulder mounted laser the most atrophied parts of his limbs--both hands and half of his left leg--replacing them with cybernetic hands and a robotic prosthetic leg. The droids took the artificial limbs fusing with his flesh--burning those parts of his skin where was his extra limbs--to hasten the process. It was pain nonethless, but that was the cost when someone chooses to sell their soul to darkness to gain a greater power.

There was one last piece before he could leave the surgery table. He kept moving and howled in pain as the chief medical droid came with a respirator strapping half of his deformed face, lifting up half of the burden of his lungs damaged by the dark side of the Force.

When you thought that was the 'last piece', the droids analyzed your blood stream too--it was slow, so essentially your heart was beating slower as well. You could see just blurs, vague parts of the world around yourself, but you had enough sight to see a droid coming out from darkness with a strange apparatus. Here your 'real' torment was about to begin. The droid cut your chest in a circle, but he did it slow and with enough precision to not trigger you any external bleeding. The four cone-shaped parts of the device were softly inserted into your chest, you could hear the crackling sounds of your sternum as it was slightly split apart. The agony was excruciating, you tried to move your body on the operating table, but you were tiedby it--the only thing you could do was to scream, and scream, as the medical droid planted the device into your wounded chest.

Once your ravaged flesh was fixed, the table rotated in vertical position. Around you there was none you loved when you fully regained your consciousness, it was only a woman with mendacious shadows around her and a zombie-like man constantly cracking his decayed teeth with a hideous aspect watching you as if he was hating you deep inside.

The table's restraints quickly retracted finally releasing you from the seemingly never-ending agony.

You gently stepped on the icy floor, but you could not feel your left leg, and you collapsed. You pressed enough force with your new hands to get up, but you could sense them partly. Your muscles were no longer useful, the medical droids attached a suit for movement and physical strength for your useless body.

Every step you walked with your left leg, every move of your hands as you walked--you could not sense them anymore.

And now the woman approached,

"Now that you are functional again, you will sojourn Prakith."

He was ready to add his word but the rotten man interfered,

"What about us Lord Traya?"

"We will strike seldom and with efficiency."

The warrior loved the war with a bright passion, always burning inside him,

"And we should sit here, waiting for him!?", Sion raised the tone,

"Yes. Do not forget who is the Master here."

War represented everything he was, everything he knew, everything he felt, but an order is an order.

"As you wish, Lord Traya.", Sion nodded leaving the Medical Center to hone his combat skills with fallen Jedi in the training chamber.

Nihilus's flesh was failing, yet if one used the Force, then they could temporarily revigorate the damaged parts of their body as they were just fine.

He and his Master walked the dark halls heading at the spaceship port. In that circumstance he wanted to learn more about the awkward power that consumed his own deformed body.

"Master Traya, am I the only one who can do that, are there others too?", the woman sensed his consuming thoughts and replied,

"During my research I learned that what you do is somewhat in someway, similar to the rare-type dark side ritual used by the ancient Sith."

"But-", she said staring ahead,

"-their rituals are different than your Hunger.", he stepped forward watching her with arms crossed,

"While their rituals devoid worlds of Force as well and empowers them with the suffering of others, the rituals are not able to destroy an entire planet--to devour it until it disappears. Like you did to Shyeera."

"Yes", now he slowly remembered--the barren landscape, the ruined mysterious structure and power generators. Now he saw himself back into ship in his mind, looking through the window at the dead planet as it began turning very, very slowly into speck of dust.

They were outside of the Trayus Academy, still speaking,

"Remember, you will bring Darth Andeddu's holocron to me. Otherwise, I know you are aware of the consequences.", she laughed as if for her it was nothing more but a game, as if it was something normal to inflict suffering in people for their failures--but that was the way of the Sith.

This time Traya ordered her apprentice to take a starship instead of a transport ship with a squad of Dark Jedi or Sith assassins. This had to be a swift and simple mission--bring the holocron to his Master and learn how to save himself from his illness.

He entered into ship, taking the front seat, turning on the spaceship's engines. Normally the master would have had a pilot to go with the apprentice, but during these four years he was instructed how to fly a ship--what buttons he needed to press to activate the engines, the radar, the laser cannons, how to raise up or down the protective metal seal if the ship was damaged, which were the light speed levers, how to change the ship's course.

The spaceship slowly ascended to the storming sky, leaving the ravaged planet.

He set the ship's coordinates to the Deep Core region--within the Prakith solar system and planet Prakith of the Dark Lord.

He was flying within the mysterious Deep Core region, alone, and everything that surrounded him was nothing more but the immensity of cosmos, the planets spinning, the asteroids that roamed flying in space randomly, the stars bursting heat, the presence of dust motes in the ensuing collision of two random meteors.

After four lengthy hours of roaming in the cold vacuum of space, Nihilus found the planet which he has looked for--Prakith.

The world was a mountanious fortress--it had an unstable terrain and its isolation made it a difficult site to be conquered by force.

As his spaceship penetrated the harsh world's sky, through the Force, he could sense the presence of many intelligent life forms somewhere inside the many skyscrapers of the famous capital of Prakith--Prak City--where, if you were just lucky to be in the air, you could see the pointed fangs of some animal. Since he had no idea where this Dark Lord's tomb might be, he landed with his spaceship there.

Prakith's capital was erected on the largest plateau, allowing plenty of land to house huge constructions if some, of course, desired to build.

Nihilus landed next to a skyscraper--it was old, larger than those he has seen before, but teeming with life. Man activity sounds echoed all over the skyscraper--like drilling, walking, talking, yelling. He stood still in the front of the two ironed large doors, going unnoticed. Through the use of Force, he could see, you could see through his eyes the strange life forms that were inside the building--Bothans, Wookiees, Zabraks, Neimodians, a huge number of humans, and a Chiss,

"A Chiss!", he saw him in the darkness sitting on a cozy white chair in a office-like room, you saw his soft face, his icy cold look, and from that moment, from that moment you figured out who he was,

"The Crime Lord!", he shouted in your mind with vile and hate,

"Now I'll finally kill you, you cursed Chiss. And I shall avenge my parents's death.", you said. You grew anxious and impatent as you learned about the blue alien's presence, you had to take your revenge, to make him pay. This time he won't slip through your fingers, no, this time you will show him, you will truly show him, Lord Nihilus, the consequences of his past doings.

He knew he was instructed but with one goal--that of finding Lord Andeddu's holocron and quickly returning--however, vengeance held more importance than that secret.

This Sith had unbelievable power, therefore--to infiltrate, to strike fast as a shadow and quickly disappear, or to be deceptive--these were not such options, not now, not when he possessed a power beyond any imagination, when he could simply crush everything around him with the Force, dust motes into his eyes.

Nihilus brought his palms together, as if he were holding a ball, charging telekinetic energy. He gathered more and more until he could sense a heavy object into his hands. Once the telekinetic wave was concentrated enough, fueled by rage and hate, the Sith Lord unleashed it, shattering the massive gateways, turning them into millions of fragments.

The gateways were blasted away, and your way to the revenge was clear.

Nihilus made his way into the Crime Lord's Skyscraper, pushing away with the Force anyone who tried to attack him, no, everyone that was standing in his path. But his presence triggered the general alarm--suddenly, high pitch sounds began spreading throughout the structure--the Chiss heard it too as he planned to renew his own business with some men in his room after he ruined it--there on Shyeera--Nihilus remembered it, as the mind was focused only at that thing.

"What is it, now!?", the Chiss shouted, angry,

"Sir, bad news...", a black Zabrak entered into the office,

"What?", Akynto stood up; his legs was shaken,

"There is a Sith, my lord. He destroyes everything in his path."

"A Sith here, but how!?", the blue alien punched the table with the left fist, but then he recalled,

"So, even here I am followed, fine then. Take all my army, and send that monster into oblivion.", his eyebrows frowned,

"And if that fails--I still have 'two tricks' into my hands."

Nihilus already knew that the Chiss was a coward and he'd have tried to escape for what the Sith Lord did to him the last time. So Nihilus fueled his power with rage, hate, and anger--so he made the building trembling, enough for pieces of ceiling to collapse everywhere, so the Chiss's ships could be destroyed.

As he shattered each thing--tables, broken engines, computers, closets; each one around you--Bothans, Zabraks, Twi'leks, Neimodians, and humans, a huge squadron of shady men--wearing dark armors, fuscuous masks, black capes, electric staffs--appeared before his eyes.

And a familiar voice said,

"So, Lord Nihilus, you found me again, heh?"

"This will be the last time when you interfere into my business."

"My Krim Knights--teach this Sith a lesson."

"They are no match for me.", that's what you said in your mind.

He unleashed a quarter of his Hunger to consume their souls, but suddenly it turned against him, consuming him instead.

"Ysalmiri armors.", a Krim Knight replied gently beating his armor,

"Your Force powers have no effect against us. But we certainly do have.", they spinned their electrical sceptres like an airscrew.

The Krim Knights were the elite of the Crime Lord, and total obedience was their creed.

Their Ysalmiri armors had the ability to negate all the Force based attacks. The Crime Lord after being defeated, he made his way randomly in the Core Deep region where he found this world Prakith, and inside this skyscraper that was now his and his alone he found strange silver-like clothes that could deny one's Force attacks as he learned about the armors in their description. Who had left them, no one knows, why, neither.

The Knights formed a circle around him, ready for attack. Cornered, Nihilus gave himself once more into rage, blindly attacking the fighters, while they were electrocuting his back and his right leg, with their staffs.

The hands and the legs were useless, but the Force was never, so the Sith Lord chose a different strategy.

Nihilus leaped backward in the air, ripping off ten average-sized power cables and used them as a replacement for Force lightning, destroying the Krim Knights's Ysalmiri suits.

With their armors being shattered, the Lord was ready to inflict terror upon them. Dark lightning bolts touched their skin, affecting their organs--heart, kidneys, livers, brain, eyes, muscles. They screamed in pain, asking him to stop, but he relished their despair and unimaginable suffering, he liked to see the agony and the fright on their face. He could smell their roasted skin as your thunder bolts made their way across their bodies. And when his rage was gone they were gone too, nothing remained behind, not even their electrical staffs.

Nihilus resumed his personal agenda--that of destroying the criminal Chiss. Of course he could have unleashed his Hunger power to a wide-planetary level, but then, he'd have risked to never find Lord Andeddu's holocron or kill the Chiss with his own hands--to see the suffering in his cold icy eyes as he dies under his terrible power.

The Sith Lord went forward taking the stairs. He climbed up the stairs, yet they kept coming, and he kept smashing their bodies by the ceiling, by the solid walls, cracking their skulls, their spines, their ribs, strangling them with the Force and twisting their necks, or simply throwing them off the window.

These men were like tiny ants compared to his power, and Nihilus knew it.

So after a long, and boring, and annoying fight with these insignificant creatures--that he deemed them to be so--he came at the Chiss's office. Nihilus was standing next to the door, he felt his doubts, how his heart beat faster, how his blood pumped up quicker in his veins.

The Sith Lord broke the door, but there was no one, only a portable holorecorder on the table. Nihilus turned it on, and the Chiss appeared,

"If you want that hard to have me killed, come in the Skyscraper's Underground Room."

The time has come when Nihilus will take his revenge for the vile acts of that Chiss.

The Sith Lord did exactly as Lord Akynto told him in that message and he entered into the Underground elevator that happened to be in the right next to the Crime Lord's office.

The elevator slowly went down leaving Nihilus enough time to think his strategy. But he did not expect to this when the elevator's door opened--a Chiss into a super exoskeleton equipped with two blaster rifles, one grenade launcher on the right shoulder, two feet jetpacks, and a tractor beam cannon mounted on the left shoulder. What was worse, it had a Ysalmiriprotection like the Krim Knights.

"Now I'll show you, Sith, what becomes with those who love ruining my business."

Akynto Bees fired in the Sith; Nihilus jumped back to avoid the alien's laser blasts. The Chissthrew grenades all over the place to shatter that cursed Sith; Nihilus managed to dodge them by using the Force throwing them back into the alien. Akynto grabbed them with the tractor beam cannon throwing them into the Sith again; Nihilus used the Force keeping them into a telekinetic Force sphere until they exploded, barely hurling him by the wall.

The Crime Lord believed himself to be victorious, but the Sith Lord got up. The Sith Lord got up and he quickly lifted up with the Force a massive pipe that was down. The alien caught it when it was thrown, intending to throw it back, but the Sith Lord burst with speed using the Force, jumping on the exoskeleton's upper front part. Nihilus sliced off Akynto's tractor beam cannon, his blaster rifles, but the Chiss hurled the Sith Lord four meters away before he could pierce into his own armor to get him.

Akynto used the jetpacks and reached into air,

"Let's how you'll finish me now."

The blue alien shot with rockets in all the massive objects, leaving the Sith Lord with no offensive attacks.

The Chiss began to launch with rockets anywhere he saw him, the annoying Sith. Darth Nihilus, the Lord, hidden into shadows at least for now.

Then, out of nowhere, his crimson blade struck the Chiss behind in a blink, cutting off his feet jetpacks.

He came out from that dark place where he brought down the vile Chiss, more than glad to sink his blade into the alien's guts.

The red blade pierced the armor in a circle and he laid his hands into the suit taking out the Chiss, strangling him. Nihilus pushed the alien away from him as he tried to beg for mercy. Nihilus hit his body by the walls, by the ceiling, by random boxes, until blood started dripping down his nose and spill it.

And now the final strike, Nihilus knew he was going to pay, but,

"If you kill me, you'll never see your parents.", the Chiss was collapsed and weak.

"They are alive, where are they?", he said desperate. The alien opened a secret door with a secret remote control,

"Right here."

His parents were now before his own eyes,

"Is really you?", he said in his mind, unable to utter a single word, knowing what would they say if they found out what he has become.

"Look, lady Kashya and merchant Cylnus. Your so beloved son.", the Chiss groaned. Kashyawith her husband came at that dark man--Cylnus chose to stand back as she approached him.

"Is really you, my dear Vodan!?", she was happy and joyful--she 'was' until she saw his deformed face half-scrapped by a respirator.

Kashya's face stance changed,

"Oh my...what happened to you?", she stared at his pale face, your black eyes, your cybernetic hands, and your prosthetic left leg.

"I forgot to tell you he is with the Sith, now, right 'Lord Nihilus'?"

"The 'Sith'?", she looked at the collapsed Chiss.

Even if all of that were true, but it couldn't, Kashya still hugged her ill son,

"Vodan, we're again together. Let's leave this place."

You ignored his mother's words or maybe his didn't hear them because what he were thinking was only how to kill the Chiss. His parents were fine, but he didn't care anymore, love was less important than his own personal vengeance.

So he burst in anger, gripping the Chiss with the Force, strangling him. But his mother stopped him,

"Vodan, what are you doing, let him go. Otherwise you'll become just like him."

The Chiss barely breathed but he could say a few words,

"He has become already more than me.", the pale blue alien smirked cracking his teeth.

He frowned his eyebrows, disturbed by the alien's words, strangling him harder with the Force,

"Shut up!"

"Vodan, please, stop. Let's leave these behind.", Kashya cried, your mother cried, desperately trying to stop you from making a big mistake, from losing yourself. But as you charged a powerful telekinetic wave--fueled by rage, and hate--ready to send the Chiss into oblivion, your mother kept talking to you. As you boiled deep inside with rage and anger, you hit your mother instead, slamming her by the wall, breaking her fragile skull and spinal column, as if she were your enemy and not the Chiss, the one responsible for your suffering.

The being who gave you birth, the woman who raised you, who held you in her arms when you were but a little baby, the only person that cared more about you then herself, now was lying on the icy floor.

She gave you love, and in turn, you gave her hatred.

"Bastard, what have you done to her!?", your father screamed in tears. And you burst once more, piercing him with your crimson blade. But he loved you, despite of those words, and he caressed your face in tears, then he died.

The anger and the rage you felt--you projected those emotions upon them, why, because deep inside you, you didn't want to avenge the loss of your parents but your own suffering when you were sold as a slave, because they were an obstacle in taking your revenge. So you cared more about yourself than them, and now, the self is everything you have. Yet that was lost too as you subdued yourself to your greed, to your thirst for power, to your hunger.

In truth, you remained with 'nothing'.

Now you mourn their death, shouting at the ceiling,

"Noooooooo!", and you cry, and you sigh, blaming yourself forever for this.

When you finally found your parents, when you could finally be with them again. . .

You had the chance to choose between vengeance and love, and instead you gave yourself for vengeance. Now this will forever haunt you.

The Chiss still had to pay, and the Sith Lord knew.

Nihilus slowly twisted his limbs, hitting him twice by the ground. Then he tortured the alien with dark thunderbolts coming out from his fingertips. The alien died in great agony, his body turning into ash and then disappearing.

Nihilus's vengeance was done, the Chiss was finally dead, and now he could head at the tomb of the Dark Lord Darth Andeddu with the coordinates he found on the floor dropped by theChiss when he was slammed by the walls.

The Sith Lord left the Underground level with the elevator, exiting the Skyscraper from where he entered. But images of his parents haunted him; he could see their faces as he was awake. The Lord did one more thing. Nihilus distanced himself as long as possible as he could by the skyscraper, and then he raised his two hands in the air. The giant building began to shake itself--everything within was crushed by the concrete remains, tables, cables, compartments, terrain vehicles, speeders--the structure collapsed into itself. This building was the man's grief, and now, destroyed. It is like when one tries to sever their memories of something unpleasant bonded by a certain object or by a certain place. For Nihilus, was selfish moral salvation, it made him feel comfortable, it made him to feel he is absorbed by guilt, it made him to think there is a new beginning.

The Sith Lord set foot back into his starship--which he protected as the skyscraper imploded--ascending to the sky.

Finally, after hours of flying, Nihilus made it--Andeddu's Keep.

As the ship landed down, he felt the extreme dark side energy waves-- imperceptible to simple eye--that burst within the tomb. The darkness that was shrouding his very physical being, that was drawing him by promising him great heights of power, that made the rest of his body to tremble--such place is the Keep.

The gates appeared to be sealed, but Nihilus force opened them, and a number of a people made their presence known. They were almost naked, wearing just underwear, black gloves, and red lightsabers. The primitive men activated their weapons, sounds of sabers echoed throughout the tomb,

"We're Malevolence, the Lord's watchers. Trespassing will be punished."

But Nihilus knew they were no match for you in spite of their imposing stance, no, they were nothing more but motes of dust in his own eyes. His power did not go unnoticed--they felt it too--his body was irradiating with brute Force energy, but in the same time consuming by increasing into itself.

The Keep's keepers bonded their dark side essences, creating a huge sphere of dark side energy, hurling it in you. You caught their creation, dissipating it with no problems.

Your body was exhausted and continued to fail and you had no interest in fighting. So you used the Force stunning the Malevolence watchers, while you were able to roam among them to complete your task.

The darkness within was great, and it called, it called the Lord, to go, to go and claim its secrets for himself.

Every trap planted by the Keep's servants--ancient battle droids, hidden boulders, secret laser guns, alchemized Sith beasts--they were all shattered, shattered by the Lord's hunger for power as he made his way to Andeddu's holocron.

After a long sequence of failed traps, the Lord found the source of the darkness--a sarcophagus guarded by another group of people. Nihilus grew tired and tired of fights, so he slammed those men by walls, enough to let them knock-out.

The sarcophagus was opened, the holocron shun with red lights, and something flashed.

"Who dares to violate my sanctuary!?", a silent echoing voice said. You relaxed your senses, and you could see something in that dark place where you were, a blurry shadow that step by step was more and more visible to your eye,

"I'm Lord Andeddu--what do you wish?"

"My body is failing because of the illness that consumes me within. I need your help, spirit of Lord Andeddu."

"Sith shares nothing with others. Go, and leave me alone.", that's what the spirit told you. Deep inside you felt mocked, you felt pathetic, but you knew he was wrong, and you'll just prove that.

"I challenge you, Lord Andeddu.", you said in anger,

"Now you learn.", the ghost moved into a new vessel, a mortal body--one of those who were hit by the icy walls. The shelter was occupied and the Dark Lord rose again.

But his powers were far above him, what he needed to do was to strike him with many bolts of dark lightning, until he broke the ancient Dark Lord's host body.

He slowly approached Darth Andeddu's broken host body, gripping him by the neck with aggression. From the first time the ancient Sith Lord stared into his deteriorated black eyes, he could see the end of all that it was--light and darkness. He was far more dangerous than the dark side, you represented perfect 'nothingness'.

The Dark Lord was frightened around Nihilus's predatory presence and quickly drew his spirit back into holocron, running away from the beast's hunger. He ran from him when he saw the eyes. Hungry, empty eyes. For him it was as if he was watching into a black vortex where a thousand of souls were spinning in agony and scream in unison trying to escape. Terrifying. More horrible than the darkest nightmares a Sith could conjure to men.

"Now, show me, and teach me."

The very old Dark Lord gifted Nihilus with the secret of eternal life, telling him that the one who embraces the dark side will eventually suffer because of the great heights of power their body is subjected to. Eventually they all die. Andeddu taught and Nihilus learned.

After you were taught how to rip your spirit off your flesh, you knew you became stronger, you knew you surpassed even your Master in power. Now she was no longer useful to you. But in the end that is the Sith way as she told you.

It begins first with simple, blind obedience, but as one learns, they slowly begin to crave, to acquire for themselves, and finally, when their power surpasses that of their Master, they deceive and kill them in turn. In the end these are the three component keys that define a Sith--knowledge, power, and betrayal.

Nihilus had two, and what he needed was the third.

The Sith Lord left the Keep, leaving the holocron back into the tomb, no longer needing it. He went through the crowd of Malevolence, but now they let him to pass outside, afraid of his amazing powers.

The gateways were closed behind him by the men who continued to immerse themselves into the destructive energies of the Keep, unwilling to leave such a wondrous place extremely sipped into the potent influence of the dark side.

The Sith Lord left Prakith, swearing he will never return again.

"Malachor Five, finally.",you said as you were in its crushing atmosphere. Malachor Five, indeed, a dark world just as your own heart, Lord Nihilus, and in the same time just as, 'empty'.

Once this planet was like his most hateful thing in his life, but now he craved for it, he craved this place. Because here, because here he felt good, he felt accepted, understood, because here the weaknesses of character were saw as strengths. So he could have an excuse for his terrible doings. He knew that only 'power' is the escapement for his worse acts--because that's what the Sith teaches one, that morals do not apply to those in a position of power and influence, because there aren't any morals at all, because those who have a greater power establish what's right and what's wrong. A beautiful lie that will cover his thoughts, warm you up inside, a lie that will have his past, present and future atrocities, completely...justified.

The Lord entered into Trayus Academy, descending into darkest part of the school.

The Master waited for him,

"So, where is it?", she asked,

"I couldn't find it, but at least I destroyed that Crime Lord you had me to kill him on Shyeera."

"Then, suffer the consequences of your doing.", she struck him with purple sparks of lightning, torturing you. But he submitted himself to her, accepting her treatment. He knew he'll inevitably destroy her, but this was not the time, not yet. He just waited for the proper opportunity.

The Rise of Hunger

Chapter VI

All around, books, volumes, old manuscripts, shelves, and what could be other than the mesmerizing darkness, oh the mesmerizing darkness.

Slender shoulders leaned on the table, weak hands skipped pages, and deteriorated eyes read them.

Nihilus stood in a secret place he found by chance inside the Malachor Depths, hidden from the prying eyes of his own Sith Master.

The chamber was enormous, it had seven kneeled statues arranged in one side and another of the hall, each having a stoned lightsaber-like stick with its edge directed into the ground. At the first look they seemed to be an elite of Sith warriors bowing to their mysterious dark side ruler. No one, with the exception of Lord Nihilus, knew about the presence of the hidden chamber. It appeared to be a laboratory, where its researchers experimented with the dark side on various subjects. The science notes which Nihilus found, showed him how the Sith researchers tried to discover or invent new dark side abilities. The science notes also had that the enigmatic Sith Emperor of the old empire had striven in finding a way how to provoke wide-planetary breaches into the fabric of Force by himself after he consumed the Force on the fertile agriworld known as 'Medriaas'. From the emperor's private notes it was revealed that the planet he stripped off Force, with thousands of Sith Lords under his influence, was nothing but a random event. The breach was not a 'real' purpose of the Sith Emperor, his desire was to transform the world into a powerful dark side nexus by harnessing the suffering and agony of the inhabitants. Nihilus learned from the emperor's notes that his awkward power was similar, yet different, with the events on Medriaas. However, time was critical and Nihilus was ready to experiment with the dark side of the Force.

Knowing that he will die in no more than a few days, the Lord brought secretly a fallen Jedi Knight into his room.

The Jedi was placed on a table with restraints. The Jedi screamed, burst with rage, shaking his hands and legs, but no one could hear a noise given the room was antiphonal.

Nihilus cleared his mind of everything that surrounded him--the building, the men, and the storming weather.

As he cleared his mind he could just hear fine Andeddu's voice as if he were there, but in fact he remembered the ancient Dark Lord's words,

"Focus on your vessel, and soleil there until everything from the exterior reality fades away in your mind. When you are prepared, rip off your spirit from the flesh and inhabit your fresh host."

"The transition is extremely painful, but that's the price of eternal life."

The Lord ripped off his soul from his deformed, weakened, and useless body, taking that of the tied up Jedi.

Ice and cold engulfed the subject's flesh, the Sith Lord force pushing the Jedi's corrupted spirit into Chaos, replacing it with his own.

Nihilus opened his eyes, you opened your eyes. The process was agonizing just as the ancient Dark Lord predicted.

Now you looked at your consumed physical shelter--pathetic, a relic. Now you felt healthy again, now you could be how you once were again, now...the Hunger consumes you again.

You were desperate, you were desperate because any random body you were choosing, they were all failing you--consumed by your great heights of power and insatiable hunger.

After ten failed hosts, the Sith Lord came with a brand-new idea, an artificial vessel. Lord Nihilus ordered some Dark Jedi-- whom he corrupted with the Force--to gather small parts of iron from crashed Mandalorian ships.

The broken parts of iron were lain into a pot and then turned--with the help of Sith magic--in a dark robe armor pieced on with a black cape.

The vessel was imposing and tall, with two eye holes, a superficial nose, and a barely noticeable mouth.

But one thing was missing, a symbol, something that defined his very all-consuming nature, something that defined 'death'.

The Sith Lord ripped off the head of his deformed body, melting it in boiled water until it was without any hunk of flesh. The Lord moulded the skull by his own imagination, creating a white mask-like and drawing two red vertical lines on the two eye holes with the leaked blood in water. The last attachment was an amulet on the mask's forehead that was meant to keep the Hunger temporarily under control when there was no Force sustenance, one could say it was similar to an energy reservoir.

The corrupt Jedi stood next by their Sith Lord as he prepared to encase his essence into the dreaded armor.

As the Lord rips off his own spirit by the flesh, everything around begins to fade away. The light becomes pale. The reality is blurred and deformed.

But the transition hurts, as if someone pierces their blade into your stomach, quickly eviscerating your intestines or disrobed your skin while you were aware of the world around.

Although to some eyes the ability of transferring the spirit was something spontaneous and swift, in the fact the practitioners felt as if was for an eternity, as if the torture was never ending.

The fallen Jedi were next to their master, wondering themselves if he did it or died in that attempt, gazing at the black armor enchanted with Sith magic to stand lightsaber strikes.

For a few moments was complete silence, all were paying attention to the Lord's artificial shelter.

Now he was awake. That was a new stage of his existence. He open your eyes slowly, but he had no eyelids. The reality is again clear, yet his vision was somewhat different. Black and white are the only colors he could perceive.

The dark side did not harm his new 'body' anymore, in fact he sensed nothing. You couldn't feel how the lungs pump air in your organism, because there was no lungs for doing that anymore. He could no longer feel the sensation of touch and he didn't have anymore the natural needs of a human. He felt neither the warm nor the cold. He was a vacuum. He was a presence. He existed, he didn't live. He was already 'dead'.

The operating table softly rotates to vertical with your lifeless vessel.

To the most he might have appeared to be terrible, a monster, an aberration of nature. Yet, in the eyes of the lurking shadows, he was perfect. . .threatening. . .the final expression of death.

The corrupt Jedi leaned forward to check their master's condition,

"Lord Nihilus, are you alright?", the fallen Jedi spoke through a a transpirator, an assist for the respiratory system, similar in form and function to a breath mask.

"Mother, father is that you!?", images appeared into the Lord's mind with his now-dead parents shortly after the technique of Transfer Essence.

The voice sounded clear in his own mind, but for the men around him, was distinct. What they heard was but some tormenting hissings, imperceptible grim sounds.

The first fractions of a moment were unpleasant, disturbing, yet soon he began to get familiar with his new way of existence.

Vodan Tenebb was truly gone, devoured by his own inner rapacious beast. The memories of the past with the parents at the trade shop, the fortune and unfortunate events, sweet and bitter times, they were gone.

Something sinister is rising out of the dark side's deepest depths. A force like never seen before. A force that shall wreck annihilation over all the galactic worlds and their civilizations.

The worst times are at the horizon for the Republic, and a great holocaust of the Jedi Order is about to begin.

This time, trust, joy, hope--these will all die. And an entire galaxy shall be enveloped into darkness. But this time the darkness will not conquer. This time, the darkness it will destroy.

Soon the galaxy shall know your power and tremble at your mere presence, Nihilus.

They will know. . .

THE LORD OF HUNGER HAS RISEN!

Betrayal

Chapter VII

The Sith Lord was analyzing a few electronic documents of the researchers in the hope that he will find a way to control the phenomenon that rendered him a breach into the very fabric of Force.

Unbeknownst to Nihilus, the Marauder Darth Sion was roaming the Malachor's Depths, instructed by Traya, the Academy's head, to find him.

It passed some time since Nihilus's absence and the Academy's servants that were not under his influence began to have suspicions about Traya's foremost apprentice.

Sion walked gently, keeping an open eye for anything unfortunate might happen. Loud sounds like computer beeps came from a long dark hall. The Marauder powered up his crimson blade in the darkness to see better.

Nihilus was to a large computer learning more about the uncanny emperor from his personal notes continuing to gather an amount of useful information about dark side abilities and the emperor's most private thoughts.

The beep sounds were clearer and clearer as the Marauder approached a strange door made of artificial material that was meant to mimic the hall's view.

Sion sensed behind the said so stone an unusual chill, a massive loss of life like he felt onShyeera. It was Darth Nihilus.

The Marauder tapped into the dark side power and blasted the almost imperceptible door with a Force wave, shattering it.

Though the laboratory was large, Sion's voice echoed,

"So here you are?!", the Marauder approached Nihilus with quickness.

Sion observed a change to his fellow colleague apprentice; his ravaged body was gone and all that stood before him was an imposing artificial vessel with a vacant stare. Nihilus undoubtedly did it. . .the solution of eternal life.

As much as Traya, Sion thought that Nihilus was telling the truth and he did not try to deceive their teacher. However, with this Sion saw an opportunity if they would betray the Dark Lord and set themselves as the indisputable rulers.

"You played with her trust and you lied to her.", Sion cracked his teeth and gazed at him with a deep frown,

"I am wondering what she might to do you if she finds out?", Sion looked at the old ceiling paved with strange golden inscriptions.

Nihilus read the Marauder's mind learning about his 'real' intent and tried to forge an alliance.Nihilus spoke and Sion listened.

Sion heard the burdensome hissings and a vision with Traya dead and them as the next Dark Lords of the Triumvirate made him to admit that he planned as well to usurp the dark lady.

"I see. And I perfectly agree with you.", he opened up wide and cracked his decayed teeth. Although was aware if they ever had the moment to overthrow Traya they should have the entire Academy on their side,

"There's danger. The Academy is still under Traya's influence. We must make them to join us."

Nihilus hissed again showing the tough Marauder another vision; all the Academy's students and masters bowing to them, fulfilling their will.

Because his only meaning of communication was through the mind, Nihilus showed Sion a new ability that was part of his akward condition that allowed him to have a mind erroding presence. They should have become either mindless servants or men with enough will to perform basic tasks. On the other hand, Sion did not agree,

"The Sith needs servants to know how to make decisions. I don't see well this idea of yours."

Sion did not share the same idea with Nihilus, instead he wanted to turn Traya's followers on their side,

"I will find a way to persuade the other Sith to join us.", Sion turned his back but Nihilus hissed for five seconds,

"'If they won't join us?', then they will be destroyed."

Nihilus asked Sion what should they do through his disturbing agonizing sounds,

"You, stay here. I am going to create an inner conflict.", Sion left the colossal chamber and Nihilus concealed the laboratory by creating a Force illusion of the broken door.

In the Proving Grounds, Dark Jedi students were training side by side with Sith apprentices likewise. The person who watched them was Shersach, an influential human member of the Triumvirate, yet occupying a lower position in the Sith ierarchy in contradistinction with Sion and Nihilus.

"Fight, fight 'till the death, but don't let yourselves killed.", Shersach shouted, he even laughed.

Shersach was with his three closest and most loyal colleagues Sith Masters--Jiptyre, Krissot, and Sesk.

Unlike the high ranking three members of the Triumvirate, Shersach wore a traditional Sith armor and a silver mask to cover his face after it was burned by Traya for his disobedience.

As he oversaw the students, a rotten man approached him without being noticed. Jiptyre was the first to realize the Marauder's presence, followed by Sesk, Krissot, and Shersach himself.

"What is it, my Lord?", Shersach asked nicely with arms crossed behind back,

"I have a proposal for you, Shersach.", Sion cracked his teeth,

"A 'proposal', but what if may I ask?", Sion took his lightsaber from the belt but he didn't turn it on,

"If you want to know what is all of this about, I warn you. Either you'll die by my hands or by Traya's."

Despite Sion's threatening words, he knew how unpleasant was for him to be nothing more than a mere servant of a fractured force of Revan's Sith Empire. Deep inside, he wanted to become more powerful, he craved for a higher position in the Triumvirate.

But what was this risk the Marauder referred about,

"I like a proposal as long as it is advantageous for me. And I presume you want to overthrow the Dark Lord of the Academy. Am I not right, but can you?"

Sion raised his tone,

"Don't be a hypocrite, Shersach. I know you want to overthrow Traya just as much as I want. Don't try to play these mind games with me.", Sion cracked his teeth again.

He knew that the Marauder was right. After all Traya is the one who punished him for his 'defiance' burning his pale face, turning him into a hideous monster.

Deep inside he boiled with anger, an inner fire was burning his body. And a desire for vengeance slowly made its presence known.

Despite of all the tasks he has accomplished under Darth Traya's command swearing to never defy her again after his face was burned, the Dark Lord still did not allow him to advance in the Sith rank.

To betray her, was just a good opportunity for him. To make her pay and see her crumbled to the floor made him just glad.

"Fine, then. You got with a new ally. But give me some time to make all the Dark Jedi and Sith join us."

"I can't wait to make that old woman to pay for what he did to me.", Shersach gently laughed thrice with seriousness.

"It is done, then. I will go and distract Traya while you are gathering our forces.", Sion added,

"So I will, Lord Sion. So, I will. . .", he replied to the Sith Marauder.

The Marauder left the Proving Grounds heading to the Trayus Core, the potent dark side focal which Traya was using to foresee the motion of the future.

When Sion disappeared, Shersach shouted,

"Enough for today! There's other things we need to take care of."

The corrupt Jedi and Sith hardened students deactivated their purple, and red lightsabers.

Shersach ordered them to form a circle for a bigger audience, to be sure every one hears his words. Fifty of apprentices and other dark side mentors were in the Proving Grounds at least, ready to listen to this Sith Master's words.

Shersach put his hands behind his back and spoke,

"I give you a chance to a more glorious future. A future in which the Republic will fall and the Jedi shall disappear.", he added looking at each one of them.

"But if you truly wish that, then you'll have to betray the Dark Lord Darth Traya."

"Betray her?", a student said,

"Everything has its own risks. But without risking there's no guarantee to success."

"Master Shersach, how'd we do that?", a Dark Jedi asked deactivating his purple blade,

"Lords Sion and Nihilus are leading this usurpation. What we need to do is to dilute Lord Traya's followers."

"Are you with me?", Shersach asked for an answer, but there was no answer from anyone in the room. Shersachpowered up his red lightsaber,

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough.", the lightsaber was ready to strike,

"I will reformulate my sentence."

"Join us or perish with Lord Traya?"

Any Sith or Dark Jedi craved the darkness for it gave them power beyond belief, they fueled their strength with anger, wrath, and rage, but as they pledged themselves to the darker emotional part of the Force, there was fear as well. The fear of death was a dark-sided Force user's greatest weakness. So they accepted the Sith Master's 'terms'.

They all shouted,

"YES YES YES!"

"Excellent. Then we can begin."

There was one final place before they were able to overthrow the dark lady, the Trayus Crescent. In the Crescent there was the elite of the Triumvirate, an area full of experienced Dark Jedi and Sith Masters. Though they were stronger, their loyalty was lesser.

Shersach was the witness of a duel between a Dark Jedi Master and a Sith Master.

Shersach came closer to see the combat between the two. The other Sith Masters watched how the two struck themselves with fury lightsaber blows, with force waves, shock waves, burst strikes, employing Force lightning. Their contest could be stopped only by the strongest of the Sith and Dark Jedi Masters, and that was Shersach.

"Enough of this!", Shersach conjured huge releases of blue lightning sparkles hitting the two by the Crescent's solid walls, almost killing them.

"There's work to be done."

Shersach was the greatest of the Trayus Academy, inferior only to Lords Sion, Nihilus, and Traya.

But as the Sith ways dictate, anyone can defy their superior if they deem themselves strong enough.

A Dark Jedi Master craved to take Shersach's position and he opposed to the Sith Master's order,

"I am tired of you telling us what to do.", the corrupt Jedi Master activated his red lightsaber.

"So be it then.", Shersach activated it too. A Force contest was taking place.

Shersach approached slowly by the Jedi, the Jedi did the same.

Suddenly the Jedi struck first creating an alter-image, Shersach caught the Jedi's red blade with his bare hands and Force pushed him a few meters away.

The Jedi stood up and threw his blade, Shersach avoided it bending backward. The Jedi took advantage of the situation and Force gripped the Sith Master hitting him by a wall.

Shersach quickly took his lightsaber from the floor ready to unleash a telekinetic burst.

The explosion was released blasting the Dark Jedi Master by the walls. Shersach swiftly Force grabbed the Jedi's red bladeprepared to perform a deadly blow.

As the Jedi got up, Shersach burst with the Force creating a blur. Shersach stabbed the Jedi's belly with the Jedi's crimson blade and then with his own.

"Never try to defy if you do not know you may die.", he leaped backward and Force gripped the Jedi assaulting him with lightning sparks blasting him through the window.

"Now you'll pay attention to me.", no one said anything,

"Good."

As Shersach was persuading the Sith and Dark Jedi Masters, Sion was inside the Trayus Core standing next to Traya.

Traya was using the dark side pool not only to foresee the motion of the future but to see in the past likewise. Shewitnessed through the Force the foundation of the first Sith Empire by Ajunta Pall, the Great Hyperspace War between the Republic with the ancient Sith sorcerer and Dark Lord Naga Sadow, the Naddist Uprising, the fall of Exar Kun and UlicQel-Droma and their costly war against the Republic.

But suddenly the energizing dark side energies brought her mind in the future, in a very distant one.

And she saw a figure, a Bith, that will be known as Darth Tenebrous, side by side with his Muun Sith apprentice named Darth Plagueis. These were but fragments of a very vague future.

Abruptly, the Bith was dead and the skinny alien was his apparent murderer.

Another scene occured in her mind. The Muun came across an aristrocratic child. Blond hair, average size, elegantly dressed.

"Palpatine."

"How do you know my name?", the blond child added,

"I know more about you than just your name.", the Muun replied.

The part of the vision ended and another appeared. The Muun was dead drunk and the human relished the slender alien's suffering.

A second scene appeared with a brown haired Jedi kneeling before the same human but now an adult,

"What have I done...?!", desperately the Jedi replied,

"You're fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the dark side of the Force."

The Jedi was exhausted,

"...I will do whatever you ask."

"Good!", the shadow smiled,

"Just help me save Padmé's life. I can't live without her.", the mysterious shadow sensed the Jedi's burning inner desire for his beloved one,

"To cheat death is the power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret."

"I pledge myself...to your teachings."

"Good. Good...The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith, you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth...Vader."

"Thank you, my master.", the Jedi frowned his eyebrows. And they faded away.

Another scene appeared. The human wore a red robe, accompanied by a blue Chagrian male in the right side and an Umbaran female to the left side, speaking to a dozen of sentient alien creatures,

"In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society!"

The invisible darkness shouted and was cherished with thunderous applauses, hailed with loud voices.

Traya opened up her eyes,

"The veil of the dark side will prevail."

The woman stood up. She felt the Marauder's self-doubts,

"The Sith may not win in these moments. But I had a vision, an overwhelming one. The Sith shall win in the following thousands of years, embodied by an influential political figure on galactic scale."

"And along this mysterious shadow was a man with the heart of a storm tornado, a Jedi. A trojan horse."

"Visions are an uncertainty. They can be changed.", Sion added,

"Perhaps. But what I saw it will bring the grasp of the dark side over an entire galaxy."

Sion did his part and decided to leave,

"Fine. Then I shall leave you."

The Marauder headed back to the Proving Grounds to speak with Shersach.

Although the fallen Jedi and Sith were not there, they were all on Shersach's side.

"I did Lord Sion. They are with us."

"Excellent."

"Now I will go to Traya's apprentice and inform him."

Sion went back to the Malachor's Depths and told Nihilus about what happened.

Darths Nihilus and Sion came out from the laboratory heading to the Trayus Core.

Traya sensed Sion's presence and she felt a chill, a gap of life, Darth Nihilus.

They both came slowly on different bridges.

As the two approached she placed her hand on the lightsaber. In a blink Nihilus Force slammed her by a wall with a gesture of his hand.

Sion grabbed the woman's neck and kicked her belly.

Traya collapsed on the floor,

"You are defeated. And now you'll die."

Nihilus gave to Sion another vision through his disturbing hissings,

"You are right. We should not kill her. To see her little galaxy destroyed it is a much painful punishment."

Nihilus not only usurped his Sith Master, he cut her off from the Force using a twisted variant of the Sever Force.

Now she was defenseless. A mere being. Her grasp of the dark side was gone.

"Go and don't dare to return ever.", Sion raised the tone.

But a Dark Lord should have expected to this. After all wasn't she Darth Traya, the Lord of Betrayal?

"Such a predictable action from you. But I will do as you wish."

For her, Sion was a walking corpse, a beast kept by the power of the dark side and nothing more but a warrior without any common sense. Sion knew and understood one thing, Pain; of knowledge, of teaching he knew nothing. And Nihilus was a hungry mindless monster that was meant to perish when all the galaxy was devoured by his Hunger. For her, Nihilus would have never had the chance to become as perfected as the ancient Sith Lords; for her, he was but beneath them. Nihilus had power, but no control.

The lady left the dark heart of the Academy, walking through the shadowed hollow halls as she laid her fragile fingers on its cold walls. After a few minutes, she stepped into the Trayus spaceship port taking a random shuttle.

As her ship left Malachor Five's crushing atmosphere, she took a remote control from her pockets. She was humiliated, stripped off her powers, exiled.

In a moment, the spaceport blew up along all the spaceships killing the men inside. Great flames engulfed the place, consuming the ships to their very alloy. Metal scraps flew in the air piercing the walls. They were left to rot on that barren world, in that Sith Academy, they claimed to be as their own. They had the power, but there was no way of using it.

They might have betrayed her rule, but she has betrayed their chance to take over the galaxy. . .

Escapement

Chapter VIII

Flames engorged the Trayus starport. Ashes and pillars of smoke slowly ascended in upright columns. Shrapnel pierced into the starport's inner and outer wall's sides; Sith troopers inside had their bodies perforated by shrapnel too.

Within the consuming orange glows of fire, two harrowing monsters glowing with black auras walked side by side--an aberration of the Force in the right and a hideous walking corpse in the left whose skin was rotten and stunk. Both sending powerful ripples through the fabric of life with their corrupt presence, outbalacing the Force itself.

The two newly Dark Lords's servants extinguished the flames with wind waves executed through the amazing way of Force.

The harsh Marauder looked at the destroyed starport, cracking his teeth in anger,

"I shouldn't listen to you. Now we are all stranded on this cursed planet.", Sion was tempted to raise the tone but hesitated,

"Our chance of taking the Sith Order to its rightful glory. . . it is gone."

But this was not the end as Sion thought. The mysterious man, Shersach, approached with a solution, but a bold one,

"Lord Sion, using the Force I saw a Centurion-class battle cruiser inside the planet's orbit. And as you can see", Shersach pointed at the colorless sky,

"there are also small-sized battle ships.", he looked straight at the Marauder,

"If we use the Force, together, we could bring them down here."

The answer that Sion sought desperately was indeed, bold. In theory sounded perfectly, but practically this could not work and they might have died in horrible agony, he thought so, gazing at the perpetual storms of lightning and at the suspended space ships.

Shersach knew it had to work if they unite their strength in the Force,

"Then just watch, Lord Sion.", the Marauder was ready to mock the Sith Lord for his undoubtedly failure.

Shersach raised his hands in the air and reached out with the Force. Transparent huge hand-like shapes gripped the small-sized flying ships. He tried Force-pulling the ships, shaking them, but they were extremely heavy. Even with the aid of the other Sith Masters, Shersach couldn't do it. They simply produced insignificant turbulence, enough for some objects to fall or roll over.

Shersach collapsed on the soil, drained of his own strength, exhausted. Though it was him who had the most influence over the suspended space ships.

The Marauder half-closed his eyes looking at the colorless sky and then at the collapsed Sith Master.

"I told you, Shersach. It is in vain. There is no way out from here.", he tightened his left fist, boiling inside with rage. Sion wished to Force-choke Traya, to break her neck bones, to rip out the heart from her fragile chest, to hear how her ribs cracked. Yes, that's what Darth Sion--The Lord of Pain--wanted.

Was this the end, were they imprisoned here, would have he lived for eternity alone on Malachor while the others perished?

A black metallic cold hand gently leaned over his right shoulder, he didn't notice that, he didn't even react despite his advanced precognitive inherited trait.

"Nihilus?", Sion cracked his teeth as the Dark Lord hissed, creating a chilling and unpleasant atmosphere,

"Can you do that, can you really do it?", one has failed, but would this one fail too, Sion asked himself.

Darth Nihilus brought his hands to the skies, concentrating himself. As he increased his Force strength with rage and hate, the perpetual lightning storms struck quicker, the thunders beat faster, the winds blew stronger tossing Sith troopers in the air. Strong circular wave winds formed giant tornadoes all over Malachor Five, cracking rocks and black mountains. In the same moment dark sphere-like shields engulfed the Sith men, protecting them from being taken by the powerful wind currents or hit by any random heavy objects. The shrill cry of the Dark Lord spread over all the planet, echoing inside out the planet's matter, even penetrating its terrestrial crust, shaking the planet almost to its very core.

The spaceships rapidly came down, placed by the Dark Lord somewhere near the Trayus Academy.

The Centurion-class battle cruiser was quickly pulled too over a huge neat plain which he saw through the eye of Force.

Such was Darth Nihilus's abominable power.

All the barely functional space ships and the Republic Navy battle cruiser were around millions of tones. The Mass Shadow Generator's gravitational field that had the ships suspended in the air was around millions of Gs, or perhaps billions. This performance would have left any great Force-user near the brink of death, but Nihilus was not at all affected, he was in perfect shape.

Nihilus was a beast, a super natural force, that's what the other Sith, including Sion and Shersach, thought after seeing what he was capable of.

After the Force-dark sphere-like electrical fields were gone, Sion still couldn't believe it to be possible despite the ships were already on the terrain. After all he saw them with his own eyes as the dread Dark Lord brought them down rapidly and with ease. Even if the Sith Marauder no longer had any heart to feel or hear its beats, Nihilus's power provoked him chilling palpitations.

"You. . .", Sion stepped back from Nihilus as his own body trembled like it were being drained,

"made it. How can it be?", Sion just stared at the space vessels, speechless.

The Dark Lord hissed again, creating another unpleasant atmosphere, only Sion was able to resist its destructive effects. Had he been exposed longer to Nihilus's awkward sounds, he'd have died too.

"Enough talking. Let's inspect the ships you brought down."

Once they had their control over the barely functional vessels, the Sith Marauder ordered to the Sith engineers to repair them as soon as possible. If failure occurred, they were punished.

Thanks to Shersach's vast knowledge of spacecrafts he acquired during his life as technician in the service of the Czerka corporation, the Sith engineers fixed the vessels in no more than three days. Without Shersach using the Force to hasten the repairing process by fixing wires, computers, laser cannons, motion tracking sensors, who knows how much it would have taken, maybe a few weeks, perhaps full months.

After those three days, the last one to be repaired was the Centurion-class battle cruiser itself. A one thousand two hundred meters spacebattle ship.

The ship participated in a war that led to the fall of Darth Malak, when the redeemed Prodigal Knight faced the Dark Lord for the last time on the Star Forge, defeating him, bringing peace again to the galaxy.

But the battle cruiser was in worse condition than the other space flying vessels. Everything was broken inside. The computers barely worked, the engines and the nozzles were destroyed, and the iron shell could hardly resist to a hyperspace jump.

Shersach used the Force trying to fix each broken fragment of the ship, but he failed in his attempt. The battle cruiser was too damaged to be flown again, it was a wreckage, worth of nothing. It was no more the same warship that struck fear into the heart of the enemies, that was once an embodiment of the Republic, a symbol of hope for the galaxy.

The only two components Shersach managed to repair were the laser weaponry and the proton torpedo launchers.

The human tehnician came out of the warship, informing the Dark Lord Darth Sion about his own failure and the other Sith engineers.

"Lord Sion, we tried our best, but this battle cruiser is still not operational. We can't do anything about that."

Sion was tempted to Force-choke Shersach but thought otherwise,

"Then that's it, Shersach. We will go and strike down the Jedi without this battle cruiser's help."

Sion knew that the huge warship couldn't work since he saw its damaged compartments and major components.

Meanwhile, Nihilus was in the Trayus Core, meditating, somehow drawing his consciousness inward to see stars, moons, planets, the absolute cosmic vacuum, meteors that clashed with other meteors, asteroids covered by flames that struck a planet's lush surface as the flames were scorching its grass and burning its beautiful flowers.

Immersed in the potent dark side focal of the Trayus Core, his perceptions changed to a wide-solar system mode. He could see all the planets within the Malachor system--their fauna, their vegetation, their relief, their climate, the natural creations, the structures built by aliens or by humans.

He saw many things through the dark side energy pool's power.There, the dark side energy had enough potency that it brought his mind into future. Often those who used the dark side energies of the Core received willingly or unwillingly visions of the past, or of the future. His first vision was one of light and 'fallen light' that became darkness, of a war between the forces of Jedi known as the Army of Light led by the Jedi Lord Hoth, and the forces of Sith known as the Brotherhood of Darkness commanded by the Dark Lord Skere Kaan. The war took place on the Valley of planet Ruusan where the Sith Lords united their dark side Force strength shaping a thought-bomb, a vortex of dark side energy. When the bomb was unleashed, it trapped the souls of both Jedi and of the Sith, total annihilation.In the second vision the light held under its benevolent influence all the galaxy. But this time there was no darkness coming from a 'fallen light', this time there was pure darkness that slowly began to crumble the Galactic Republic from within. The light became complacent, arrogant, losing its foresight and grasp of the galaxy. The one responsible for such an act was a Dark Lord of the Sith called Darth Sidious who rose to power as the Chancellor Palpatine and many years after thanks to his cunning and mastermind intellect he turned the Republic into a Sith-ruled Galactic Empire, purging the Jedi Order. The darkness destroyed the light, every known Jedi. Values such as hope, compassion, honor, love--they were gone, they were claimed as weaknesses in Sidious's reign. The darkness tainted the justice's very roots and the common sense of civilizations. The vision slowly faded away and another appeared. The third vision seemed to be many years after Darth Sidious's rise to power. This time it looked like the galaxy was in a period of uncertainty, neither light nor dark, it was like a 'cold conflict', in the same time a union and a singularity in the both sides of the Force. All that changed when a fallen Jedi Master named A'Sharad Hett embraced the dark side and became Darth Krayt, leader of his One Sith. This time there was no greedy darkness to influence the course of the galactic history by destroying and conquering planets and solar systems without any imposed limits. This time it was the 'light' itself. This time the light was the one that destroyed, the one that burned bright with orange flames and fires. Krayt was resolved to bring order with its hardening glowing rays. This 'light' that Krayt brought upon the intergalactic worlds was about to purge everything from the face of the galaxy, so a new galactic order would arise from the ashes of endless destruction. The three visions came to an end and Nihilus's consciousness resumed its course through the vast vacuum of space within the Malachor system.

While he was completely immersed in the dark aura of the Trayus Core expanding his own perceptions to a solar system level, a Sith Master interrupted his Force meditation.

"Lord Nihilus", the Sith watched the Dark Lord with legs crossed laying on the altar's icy floor,

"Lord Darth Sion has requested your immediate presence.", the Sith bowed and left the Trayus Core. Nihilus laid his metallic palms over his knees as he got up.Nihilus Force-pulled his red lightsaber next to him and left the Core area. Outside the academy, the Sith engineers under Shersach's command tried to make the battlecruiser working, but without any results. Nihilus arrived at the Colorless Plain where a pair of Sith assassins stood next to Darth Sion. Loud sounds came out of Nihilus's mouth,

"No, it can't be repaired. They try to do this for hours, but with no result."

Nihilus had a favor, maybe an obsession for that Centurion battle cruiser, he needed it, he wished it more than anything. Sion heard again bizarre unpleasant noises,

"Can you do that, can you hold this overweight warship in the vacuum of space?", Sion frowned his eyebrows and cracked his teeth. Telekinetically pulling or pushing massive objects was one thing, but keeping a colossal warship of a kilometer that ranged in thousands of tones was another. Sion asked himself when he'd witness Nihilus's edge of power or if he had any for that matter. Nihilus told Sion to take his Sith assassins and step back three hundreds of meters. The Dark Lord stepped inside the warship, and with a mere thought he turned all the Sith engineers into a mindless zombie crew, his zombie crew. Nihilus ordered them to follow him to the Command Room. The Command Room's middle was entirely dedicated to the deactivated computers, surrounded by dust-covered seats. Behind that were six other large rooms arranged in a tight, rectangular "C" shape, connected to the main level via a large, hexagonal elevator that still operated. The bridge area had a small quantity of saved electricity that spread throughout the room which lit dimly with red lighting and had two glow lamps, shaped like thorns, rose to either side of the beginning and end of the center walkway. The bridge was mostly lit by the big windows above it which made up most of the ceiling, though these opened into space in most places, with the infrastructure of the ship showing everywhere. The center of the ceiling was made of metal with most of the wiring and components hanging down precariously. A bare, clamshell-shaped command station stood at the end in front of a large viewport, void of any computer terminals.

Every mindless Sith was instructed to get to a computer terminal which controlled various parts of the Centurion battle cruiser. Once all the zombie engineers were placed in order, the Dark Lord Force-powered on the ship's navigation system and its weaponry with tiny strikes of lightning.Nihilus focused at maximum, sensing the structure of the ship with the Force, its every light or heavy component. The warship suddenly began to shake itself even if the engines and the nozzles were shattered.

"He. . . did it, again.", Sion added.

Nihilus telepatically contacted Sion, telling him to send most of the Sith troopers on the gigantic warship.

The Marauder ordered to Shersach--who happened to stand next to him--to gather the Sith troopers,

"Sith Master, order the shadow troopers to board this battlecruiser."

"Yes, Lord Sion.", Shersach bowed to the Marauder.

The Sith Master gathered all the troopers within the Trayus Academy bringing them outside taking them at the Colorless Plain.

"They are here, Lord Sion.", Shersach added as the wind blew over his Sith mask,

"Excellent."

The shadow troopers formed a big circle and Sion used himself by that circumstance to persuade them.

"Lord Darth Nihilus", he said with arms crossed behind his back and the lightsaber's hilt in his right hand,

"managed to pull down all the vessels and the Republic Navy's broken Centurion battlecruiser is fully operational."

"Now we will be able to bring order to this dying fractured galaxy. We will crush the pitiful Jedi Order and their allies. Soon, the balance will be in the favor of the dark side. In our favor."

"Under Lord Traya's rule we were weak, lost in obscurity, never capable to achieve what we truly desired."

"But all of these changed. Now new things are at the visible horizon."

"I witness a great future for the Sith Order."

Yes, the end of the Jedi was near. He could hear their screams in his head, their bones cracking under the pressure of rocks and stones; each part of their organs pierced; each limb severed off.

The shadow troopers embarked, ready to bring glory for the Sith Order.

On the other hand Sion had other thoughts. The Marauder telepatically contacted the Dark Lord,

"Take your battlecruiser and go wreck chaos among the stars. I will take another ship."

Unlike Traya who claimed to a small extent the idea of unity in the Sith Triumvirate's military power for one to strike down their enemy together with another, Sion approached with an alternative. The Sith forces had to spread across the galaxy, quickly striking from shadows and then retreat.

Sion took his Sith assassins to another huge warship, though less bigger than the Centurion battle cruiser, but still effective.

But someone had to hold control over the many Dark Jedi and Sith Masters within the Trayus Academy otherwise there was infighting. For this Shersach was chosen. Sion didn't like to watch others, he hated to be patient, Nihilus on the other hand cared less about that, he had no interest in watching others.

The three knew their positions--Shersach was the new Headmaster of the Academy, Sion was the Marauder who was infiltrating behind the enemy lines and ambushed his foes, whereas Nihilus was a world-destroyer, a living weapon who was causing wide-planetary destruction.

Soon the warships began to ascend to the sky.

Nihilus stood in the Command Room hearing the beeps of the computer terminals and the sounds of the turbulence, looking onto window at the other Sith war vessels as his Centurion battle cruiser reached in the vacuum of cold space.

Whole worlds will come to know the power of the resurrected Republic Navy now become Sith warship.

The power of the invincible RAVAGER!

@freedon_nadd_1: Very nice story-wise, although the whole bold type is a little off-putting. Makes it seem a lot longer than it actually is

I like this type of font, and it looks cool by the way.

And what do you mean about story-wise?

My writing skills, or what?

I forgot also to mention that I will write more. :)

@freedon_nadd_1: Content and story structure outside of the actual font. And good to here about more issues (unless they're in bold :-p)

@freedon_nadd_1: She's saying your story is good. I have to agree with her on the bold/ italics thing- it's hard to look at.

I can see perfectly fine, and most do. So I don't think that's really a problem. Well maybe for persons with sight problems.

@freedon_nadd_1: My sight works just fine- I simply prefer plain text. Bold and Italics are meant to be used for emphasis, not the entire body of the story. They have other uses too, like Bold for the speech of a god or similar deep, booming voice, or Italics for a character's thoughts, or even sometimes to represent handwriting, if you were writing about a note a character is reading. Using it for the full body is counterproductive to getting people to read your story. You are entitled to your opinion and style though, so have at it.

I keep it on the bold way.

@freedon_nadd_1: Considering my job is live animal capture I'd say my vision is great. @cbishop: is right bold and italics have their place, but professionaly, they are not used for the entire story body

@impurestcheese:

I'll keep it just bold. :)

@freedon_nadd_1: That is easier to read. :) ...You'll see different styles all over. Over on the RPG forum, they used to like to bold all speech from characters. I don't know if they still do that or not- I'm not over there very often.

@cbishop: so what do you think? is it good, average, or superb!?

@darthant66

@freedon_nadd_1: I haven't read it yet. I'm working on other things. When I read it, I'll leave you a comment. ;)

Hey, if you'll gonna like it, will you gonna share it?

@freedon_nadd_1: There's no way to share things on this site. I'll leave a comment, which will bump it to the top of the forum- that's about as "shared" as something gets here.

@cbishop thanks man

@shootingnova@wollfmyth@wollfmyth209@darthant66@ricey@thevivas

@freedon_nadd_1: Despite the slew of disagreements we have had and your obvious fanboyism towards Nihilus (which in this case is probably more of an asset than anything else), I'd be interested in reading a good fan-fiction. Before I actually read it (I'm very restricted on time) , you'll have to give me a brief overview of what it's about.

On a side note, I might try my hand at some fan-fics of my own as well.

Well the love for characters changes all the time. There was a time when I liked Tyranus/Dooku, I mean fanatically, then it was Darth Nihilus, now I like Exar Kun.

I don't think you'll see any bias. Besides that I could also say that those who made Luke Skywalker almost to a stage of Mortis One could be also called biased ones.

BTW, don't mind, but change your Darth Traya profile picture. lol :) Whenever I see that woman's face I know that something bad's gonna happen to me. :) Friendly speaking of course.

And, yes, the story is about Darth Nihilus before he became a Sith Lord and what he did after. Basically filling the gap.

@freedon_nadd_1: Alright. And I'm in need of a profile pic change anyway. I'll think about what my replacement should be.

I propose you these pictures: