Star Wars: Darklight
by AB
Chapter 19
Healing the last of the wounds
Kaa'ara could feel Volun's emotions changing inside the cave as she sat cross-legged outside the cave's entrance.
She felt him go from fear and anguish to anger and love. Tern on the other hand had almost perfect control over his emotions as the cave influenced his meditation showing him Force visions and dreams.
For some reason Kaa'ara could not understand he kept seeing visions of himself as a child being instructed by none other than the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, of her past and how she had suffered by Darth Vitus and Darth Incendius during their experiments to create Tern and after and the Grand Master's voice when she had exiled him from the Jedi Order.
When the visions and dreams ended she saw him as a vision of black and white, red and blue energies pick up a crystal from the cave floor right under his legs between his knees and crotch and crash it in his hand.
She had expected the crystal to crumble, instead the crystal formed four distinctly different in shape and colour fragments.
She saw the energy vision of Tern place his hand holding the crystal fragments open on his knee and remove various other items from his pockets.
She visioned him meditating to forge his lightsaber or as he had called it Forcesaber.
Then she felt it. Descending upon them like a storm cloud. Darth Solus' shuttle. He had taken the bait and as Tern had foreseen had brought one of the Life-Eradicators with him but very few other ships. The Sith Conclave's civil war must have taken its toll on the Sith forces.
The shuttle landed a few meters away.
Kaa'ara pressed the button on her communicator.
"General, now." She relayed the information as Tern had commanded.
"Roger that. Raining hell on them. Fleet concentrate your fire power on the auxiliary ships and let the Indomitable deal with the Life-Eradicator on.
A minute later Kaa'ara saw Darth Solus disembark his shuttle's ramp just as the afternoon sky was illuminated by a dark cloud above the planet's atmosphere followed by a bright flash of light, as bright as the sun and twice as big followed by secondary explosions. The seismic mines had done their job.
Darth Solus was not pleased, she could tell. "Who are you? This is the second time I've seen you help the Coalition scum and yet you are full of Dark Side power." He asked her irritated walking towards her.
Behind him Darth Typhus looked miserable and hesitant.
"Do you not know me, Sith?" She mocked him still sitting cross-legged.
"No, declare yourself before I kill you." Darth Solus exasperated.
"I am… someone." She taunted him.
He threw Force-Lightning on her. The lightning went off to the right as if blocked by an invisible magnetic force.
"Powers of the Dark Side have no effect on me puny Sith apprentice." She smiled wickedly. "Let me show you the true power of the Dark Side, fledgling." She closed her eyes.
"You… " Darth Solus began to speak only to cut himself off. "What is happening? I killed you! You can't be alive!" Darth Solus powered up his lightsaber scythe waving it at imaginary figures only he could see or hear.
"No, step back, I saw you die! I enjoyed it! Nooo!" Darth Solus' voice became increasingly worried.
"Kaa'ara, you can stop now." A voice came from behind her. Tern's voice. Volun stood next to him. Tern's new lightsaber on his hand.
"What is the matter brother? A few Force-apparitions got the better of you?" Volun taunted him.
Darth Solus looked like waking up from a persistent nightmare. It had only been a minute or two.
"I killed you!" He screamed powering up his lightsaber and throwing himself on Tern.
Tern just flicked his wrist sending him back and down on the ground on his knees.
"Stay." He turned his head to Karek. "Do you want to learn how to not hate yourself and what and who you are?" Karek knew not how to answer.
"Do you?" Tern asked more firmly.
"I can't… " Karek was at the verge of crying. "I am far too deep into the Dark Side now… " He trailed. Tern laughed. It was not a malice-full one or a sarcastic one. It was a "if you only knew" kind of laugh but it still caught Karek off guard.
"Karek, I am… made from the Dark Side. I was supposed to become the Leader of the Sith Order and bring desolation and destruction to the Galaxy. Do you really think that being involved as an apprentice to a… Sith for almost a year makes you "too far deep into the Dark Side?" Kaa'ara and Volun could see Darth Solus trying to stand up in vain.
Tern brought his fingers a forth of an inch closer together. Darth Solus cried in sheer agony. Volun could see an invisible turbulent force keeping him down, squeezing in on him.
"He is nothing. He is not even in command of his emotions, of the passion the Sith so adore. I can teach you the Dark Side and the Light. I can teach you to harness your emotions and control them, not them controlling you."
"How? How are you even alive?" Karek asked.
"I was… given life by the first practitioner of the Dark Side." Tern reiterated the events after Darth Solus had killed him six months ago.
"I don't understand… " Karek mumbled.
"You will if you allow me." Karek locked eyes with him for what seemed like aeons.
"How do I know I can trust you? He – Karek pointed at Darth Solus struggling against Tern's Force-Ability – told me what I feel… towards boys is an abomination, that only the Dark Side could rid me of this."
"He lied. I love Volun, I love him with everything I have. His sweet face was what kept me going when life ebbed from my dying body six months ago. What I viewed in my mind when "She" was healing me, bringing me back to life. Why should this be bad or an abomination? Because he is not a she? Why can you not accept yourself as you are? I almost loved you once, you know." Tern replied to him with compassion and care drawn on his face.
"I… I… dunno… " Karek could not bring himself to answer. Deep down he knew what Tern was saying was true but almost a year of psychological abuse and Sith training by Darth Solus had scarred him profoundly.
"You do not have to answer me now. You can leave if you want just don't power up your lightsaber, don't try to fight me." Tern told the scared teen.
"You… you'll kill me the moment I turn my back on you." Karek protested.
"Karek, I am holding your Master down without even breaking a sweat, do you really think I need you to turn your back on me for me to kill you? I can just kill you where you stand. I will not harm you, leave. Leave and if you decide that you do want to be my… Padawan, apprentice call it what you will, be in Dromund Kaas in a month from now. I will know if you decide and travel to Dromund Kaas." Tern answered him.
"What if I decide not to take you up on your offer?" Karek explored his insecurity further.
"As long as you don't hurt any innocents or cause trouble you have nothing to fear from me and what I'm now trying to build." Tern replied shrugging his shoulders.
"Fine." Karek turned around and ran to the shuttle. Tern saw him kill the troopers inside it with his lightsaber and take off.
"General, there's a Sith Shuttle leaving the planet's surface, give it a friendly signature in our ships' radars. It is not to be harmed." Tern told the Coalition General before turning his attention to the kneeling Darth Solus.
"You, you have caused so much grief. Was it worth it?"
"Yes, my hunger will consume the galaxy." Darth Solus replied.
"Is that you speaking… or is it the spirit in the Mask you're wearing?" Tern questioned him.
"I do not know what you're talking about. I found this mask in a tomb in the valley of Dark Lords. It has given me so much power." Darth Solus spat.
"No, it is consuming your power. Aeons ago it belonged to a Dark Lord of the Sith called Darth Nihilus. He was a Human male during the era of strife following the Jedi Civil War. Before becoming a Sith Lord, he lost everything during the Galactic Republic's war against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders. He survived the activation of the Mass Shadow Generator superweapon during the war's final battle at the planet of Malachor V. Experiencing the shadow that obliterated almost everything on and around the planet made Nihilus crave Force energy above and beyond anything else. The affliction painfully ravaged his body while rendering him a wound in the Force. He was found by the Sith Lord Darth Traya, who told him that she could teach him to feed his endless hunger. He accepted her offer of apprenticeship eventually becoming one of the most powerful Lords of the Sith to have ever lived. He was eventually defeated but not before he managed to feed off his own body and place a portion of his soul into his mask." Tern recounted Darth Nihilus' history.
"He started feeding off your Force energy the moment you first put on his mask unknowing to who it previously belonged or why it was buried in a tomb."
Darth Solus laughed maniacally. "I can remove it whenever I want, but why would I? It gives me so much power."
"So you need a mask to feel powerful? You are weaker than I thought."
"Release me and you'll find out exactly how powerful I've become." Darth Solus tried to taunt Tern into releasing him.
"No. I have a different plan in mind." Tern used his other, free hand to cast Force-Drain. Draining Darth Solus' life and Force energies.
Darth Solus screamed in pain. "This gives me no pleasure Bragus but I must weaken you for Darth Nihilus to reveal himself." Tern explained to the suffering older teen.
A few minutes later a dark red-black energy covered Darth Solus' body. "I am Darth Nihilus. What do you seek? Why dare you stop my feasting on this fool?"
"I want only one thing fallen shadow. To heal the wound in the Force." Tern wasted no time turning the Force Drain on Darth Nihilus' now exposed fractured spirit.
Within moments it was gone.
Tern broke the Force-ability holding Darth Solus down. "Karek took your shuttle, that's ok you'll die now." Tern held up his lightsaber parallel to the ground and powered it up.
Contrary to how other lightsabers he had seen being powered up before, Volun saw Force-thunders erupt from the staffblade's emitters on opposite ends before the actual blades exploded outwards.
One pure black, one pure white looking almost like liquid light and each forty-four inches tall in addition to the hilt, emitter's and the rest of the lightsaber's structure.
Tern whirled it around bringing it so that one of the blades pointed down on the ground and the other up to the sky under his armpit.
Darth Solus did not reply in words, instead he let out a roar and powering up his scythe-saber attacked Tern.
Tern whirled his Forcesaber around blocking Darth Solus' blade heading for his head. Darth Solus was taken aback by the grin on Tern's face.
"What's so funny?" For the first time Volun saw fear in his eyes.
"Deception is the mother of all warfare. This is a staffblade and it's not." Tern grabbed his lightsaber with both hands and twisted them. One clockwise the other counterclockwise. The staffblade became two different lightsabers. Before Darth Solus could react Tern powered up the two newly revealed emitters. A bright blue and a dark red blade powered up. Tern used one of the blades to cut Darth Solus' scythe-blade in half and whirling the other he cut Darth Solus in half from his crotch to his head.
Even cut in two there was no mistaking the look of utter terror and surprise in Darth Solus' eyes.
Tern powered down his lightsabers and reunited them into one, placing the lightsaber on his belt.
"Well… that was anticlimactic." Volun almost giggled.
Tern's face made Kaa'ara chuckle.
"Really now? I have just… I mean this was fucking epic right? And you… this… what?" Volun, if the situation had been different, would have fallen on the ground rolling in tears of laughter.
"I'm teasing you silly." Volun walked up to Tern giving him a deep kiss on his ruby lips.
"Why let Karek leave?" Kaa'ara asked him. She walked up to them two.
"Because… he will be my apprentice and many decades from now he will succeed me." Tern replied almost cryptically.
"Succeed you in what?" Volun asked him.
"Katosh Val, how is it going?" Tern requested through the communicator.
"We are pushing the Sith forces back, we have captured the base on the south continent and some remnant Jedi Knights have captured the spaceport and base complex in the northern continent but we need air support if you can spare it." Katosh Val's voice came through tired yet excited. He was finally fighting back the Sith.
"You'll have it." Tern closed the connection to Katosh Val and spoke to Garos asking The Indomitable to come pick them up. "General, have two squadrons of x-wings and a squadron of bombers provide air support for Katosh Val and the Jedi."
"Aye." Came the General's reply.
Tern walked to Darth Solus' corpse, bent down and picked up the broken pieces of Darth Nihilus' mask. He looked at Kaa'ara and Volun. "I need you to leave now. At least fifty meters away, please." They did not question his request and walked away as instructed.
Tern held his hand up and telekinetically held the mask about a meter away from his face. Slowly he started glowing brighter and brighter until an eruption of bright red energy left his body evaporating the mask and everything within thirty meters from him.
When the bright light dissipated Tern had fallen to his knees. Volun ran to his side shoving a hand under his armpit wanting to help him stand up.
"I think I'll stay like this for a bit. I feel tired." Tern stopped him.
"What did you do?"
"Force-destruction. One of the abilities of the Dark Side. It unleashes energy in the form of a Force-explosion… quite tiring I assure you almost as destructive. This wound of the Force is now healed. Only Tatooine remains." Tern panted.
"So that mask was responsible for turning my brother into the Dark Side?" Volun asked Tern, hopeful.
"No, I'm sorry whatever his reasons or problems were, that led him to the Dark Side, it was not this mask. He found Darth Nihilus' mask in Korriban after he had turned and begun his apprenticeship under Darth Incendius." Tern hugged Volun pressing his head up against the boy's neck.
Volun sighed, "at least it is over now and my mother is avenged."
"Vengeance will lead you to the Dark Side." Tern stated, testing Volun.
"You are as dark as they come and yet you are kind, gentle and caring. I'll take an example from you." Volun responded caressing Tern's back. "Up until I met you I thought Dark Siders were all evil. You changed that for me so I am no longer afraid of the Dark Side or of my emotions."
"Good answer." Tern whispered.
"If you two love birds are all finished we should get going." Alkon's voice came from behind them.
Volun stood up punching the man's shoulder playfully.
"Whaa? Next you'll be fucking each other in broad daylight! I am an old man I can't stand such… entertainment." Alkon continued teasing Volun.
"Oh shut up!" Volun mocked anger blushing furiously.
"He's right we have to go. I'll be fucking you later." Tern replied to his lover with an impish grin standing up.
Volun's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets before, if possible, turning even a darker hue of crimson.
"Tern, the air support has arrived, we thank you. We should easily push the Sith forces back now." Katosh Val informed him.
Tern and Volun helped the Jedi in the northern continent while Katosh Val pushed forth in the southern continent. Within a few hours the last of the Sith forces had surrendered.
"Garos set course for Tatooine." Tern was aboard The Indomitable a few hours later after the battle was won and they had cleaned up and rested. "General take the fleet to Corellia. Wait for me there."
"Yes, sir." Tern nodded to Garos who punched in the coordinates for Tatooine.
"Why send the fleet to Corellia?" Volun asked.
"We must gain momentum. I must heal the last of the wounds in the Force in Tatooine before we join them." Tern started explaining his plans.
"Join them?" Alkon inquired. "Join them to what?"
"The Battles of Ali'ava and New Alderaan." Tern replied. Kaa'ara looked up at the mention of Ali'ava .
" Ali'ava? That sounds familiar." Volun thought out loud.
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