"Report to Dromund Kaas immediately, Apprentice."

That was the message that came in shortly after I left Taris, and I had the sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be to congratulate me for a job swiftly done.

"Someone's in trouble," Zash teased.

"Someone isn't afraid of Thanaton," I said dryly. "Someone has killed powerful Sith before, and is more concerned with the consequences of doing so, which are likely to be lesser if someone can credibly claim self-defense."

"Fair enough," Zash. "I did see you in action, there. It was..." She shuddered, hornily. "Ooooh, I've never seen such unbridled power! You simply must teach me how you do that, Master!"

"Maybe," I said, shrugging. "After you teach me how to make Sithspawn, though." A thought occurred to me. "Hey, how far along is your clone body?"

"I have no idea," Zash said, shrugging helplessly. "Creating Sithspawn doesn't seem to be anything like more mundane cloning."

"Eh, fair," I said. "Alright, I'll take a look myself... aaaaaand it's still just a fetus. Fantastic." I sighed. "It is going to be a long time before you get your body back."

"True," Zash allowed. "However, I do now have this body. So, if it pleases my lord..."

"Nope," I said. "As much as Thana sucked and I don't care what happens to her, that's a line I'm not crossing."

"Fair enough," Zash said with a shrug.

I sighed, and drummed my fingers on the console.

"...Just the tip."

"No."

----------------------------------------

"An interesting venue for our meeting," I observed as I entered the large, empty chamber Thanaton had told me to meet him in. I'd left Zash back on the ship, not wanting to explain any of that mess with Thana and/or Ffon, and not really having the need for backup. "What's the occasion?"

"Don't act like you don't know, Zash," Thanaton said.

That caught me by surprise. "...I'm Rose," I said.

"And I'm Emperor Vitiate," Thanaton said mockingly. "Please, Zash. Your research notes crossed my desk. Did you really think I wouldn't notice you researching an illegal body-jacking ritual?"

"No, seriously," I said. "Zash bodyjacked Ffon, that Sith Pureblood I'd been dragging around all year. Right before we left Taris, she switched over to Gravus' apprentice, Thana."

Thanaton blinked a few times.

"Huh," Thanaton mused. "Well. That, I wasn't expecting, but..." He shrugged. "I find I have no real trouble believing it, all told."

"So, are we done?" I asked.

"Not even slightly," Thanaton said. "You and Zash are heretical, backstabbing social-climbers, and as the man at the top of your ladder, I am putting my foot down, on your head. Zash or Rose, I do not care. I want you dead..." He drew his lightsaber, which thrummed to red, coldly angry life. "...and I'll just have to do it myself."

"Your funeral," I said, shrugging out of my outer robe before drawing and flicking on my own lightsaber, which snapped to full extension near-instantly. "Tradition dictates that the man lead the dance."

He rolled his eyes, and swept forward, faster than any human should've been able to move. It didn't matter; if he was twice as fast as any human could ever be, I was still fifty times faster than him. I lazily brought my own lightsaber into a guard position, blocking his first few strokes, before lashing out with-

Not nearly as much strength and speed as I should have, which he blocked so fast I could barely see it.

"What the fuck," I said quietly, leaping back to disengage.

"I've performed my own rituals, as you can see," Thanaton said. "An aura of vampiric strength- sapping it from my foes and adding it to my own." He inclined his head in respect. "Your power is phenomenal, I'll grant you that. But I believe you'll find it... insufficient."

He charged me once more, pressing the attack, and I started taking him seriously. Believe it or not, I had actually been taught things at the Academy, and one of those was lightsaber combat, which I'd taken to like a duck to water, leaving the Academy as an unquestioned blademaster.

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However, he was Thanaton. You didn't stay on the Dark Council for long without being on the high end of capable with a lightsaber. At best, we were evenly matched.

At worst? He was better than me, and simply hadn't yet gotten around to really trying to kill me.

I switched to a one-handed style, using my other hand to try and trip him up with the Force. I didn't succeed at knocking him over, but I did perturb his rhythm enough to go on the offensive, starting to push him back towards the wall. If I could cut off his options for retreat...

He electrified his saber with Sith Lightning, and I more-or-less ignored it. Sith Lightning was an artificially-induced positive voltage. It was barely any harder to artificially induce a negative voltage to neutralize it.

"A cute trick," I said, through gritted teeth. "But you'll have to try harder than that."

"As you wish," Thanaton said dryly.

And that's when my lightsaber exploded.

"Fuck!" I yelled, stumbling back, clutching my now-mangled hand, so full of shrapnel, under my other arm, and covering the blinded, bleeding eye with my good hand. "What the-"

"Those sixty volt blaster batteries you use," Thanaton explained patiently. "They're so excitable, compared to ordinary lightsaber batteries. And when you expose them like that, well." He grinned cruelly. "Integrated batteries may make recharging a bit more of a hassle, but being integrated makes them so much more durable, don't you think?"

"You... fucking..." I ground out. "This isn't... over..."

"Oh, no, I do believe it is," Thanaton said, nodding to himself. "Goodbye, Lord Rose."

I saw him coming with my good eye, but it wasn't enough to stop him. His lightsaber sliced through the air, through my arm, through my neck, and then...

I was dead.

----------------------------------------

I was undead.

I arose from my mangled corpse, whole and resplendent.

"Oh, what now," Thanaton muttered, turning back to face me. It had only been a few seconds, but he had already walked past my corpse, not even bothering to loot my pockets. What, were my belongings beneath you? Did I possess a sub-par communicator?

"Well," I said, sighing. "Now you deal with me."

"And you would be...?" Thanaton asked, folding his arms.

"I'm Rose Victoria Corcoran," I said. "I'm from another universe- a set of memories and personality embedded into Doctor Rose Khar'Cair, here. I was what made her Force-Sensitive, when I first joined myself to her, three years ago."

"Interesting, interesting," Thanaton said, nodding. "And... how many more of your sort of being are there?"

"At least one more," I said with a shrug. "Not telling you anything else, of course. For some reason, I don't really trust that you'll use that information in a pro-social manner."

"Oh well," Thanaton said, shrugging. "I have ways of getting information from recalcitrant Force Spirits."

"Oh, I'm no ghost," I said. "I'm something far more corporeal. An earthbound demon, in my terms. As for what happens next..." I glanced down at my corpse. Well. At Lord Khar'cair's corpse. "If I'm going to be honest with you- my mortal incarnation in this universe was kind of monstrous. She didn't negotiate in good faith, she was simply lazy, and considered deceit, bullying, and thievery to be less effort to get what she wanted than murder. So, I don't really hold a grudge against you for killing her. She needed to get killed."

"But," Thanaton continued, flicking on his lightsaber.

"But," I agreed, stepping to the side. "We think she needed to die for very different reasons, and now we're going to fight about it."

"Glad we understand each other," Thanaton said. "I'd offer you the chance to arm yourself, but... well, I guess I don't really believe in good sportsmanship after all."

"You don't need to offer," I said, kneeling down and touching the dead Sith. "I'm a necromancer."

I'd learned something from Matsu's build, and as I got my new points in preparation for the next Jump, I put those lessons to good use, taking Lich Physiology and flavoring it as 'Earthbound Demon,' which retained the connotations of undeath, but with enough of a twist that I could use Minion Creation- a very nice perk I got for free with Lich Physiology- to create demonic minions rather than properly undead minions, which greatly expanded my range from animated corpses.

Lord Khar'cair's body stitched itself back together in moments; just because I didn't have to reanimate corpses didn't mean I wouldn't when the need arose. I pulsed another use of Minion Empowerment- the sister perk to Minion Creation, giving me a generous budget of points to give the minions I created their own temporary Essential Body Mod- to switch it over to something vicious.

"Oh my," Thanaton murmured, watching as Lord Khar'cair's body transformed messily into a helldrake, arms becoming wings and legs growing claws, and hellfire spilling from its toothy maw. "Now that... that is impressive."

"You kids play nice," I said. "Or kill each other messily. I've stopped caring at this point."

I stepped back, as my helldrake threw itself at Thanaton, and calmly exited the room as the fight began in earnest, grabbing my outer robe and wrapping it around myself as I left. I didn't strictly need it, but- as I shapeshifted out of my demonic form and back into the shape of Rose Khar'cair- I did find myself in need of something to wear on the run back to the ship, and without Warehouse access, I'd have to make do with whatever was physically available to me.

At least my increased toughness protected me from the consequences of being barefoot. And of bowling over an angry-sounding Sith, who I ignored in favor of continuing to run to the ship.

"Get us into orbit, now," I ordered, and Thana Zash obeyed instantly, closing all the hatches and gunning the still-warm engines. Bless Khar'cair for this much- she'd told her minion to keep the ship ready for dustoff. "Lay in a course for the worst iceball that still has a spaceport. We need somewhere to lay low for a while, that Thanaton won't think to check."

"Yes, Master," Zash said. Christ, I can't believe Khar'cair wanted to fuck that. She sounded like she thought a Bri'ish accent would make her seem refined and high-class. "What happened to your clothes?"

"Who gets to see me naked is none of your business, Apprentice," I said dryly, stalking through the ship towards my quarters. Thanaton hadn't reacted much to my nudity at the time, so... as long as he kept any further murder attempts strictly professional, with zero sexual harassment, I wasn't going to worry about it.

I closed the door, looked around at Khar'cair's stuff, and sighed deeply.

Wasn't this a right fucking mess...