Filo POV:
The cryo-pod containing an abducted Jedi Knight hissed open as Cognus dropped it heavily onto the stone floor of the Sith temple. My golden shoto blade thrummed dangerously as I stepped toward the dazed Mon Calamari reaching for his own much longer green saber that came bursting out. I smiled under Malgus' rebreather, excited at Cognus' new boost in my power.
His bulging fish eyes went wide with terror seeing my emotionless masked face. "Where am I? Who are you?" He began to cry out before I gripped his body with the Force, slamming him onto the floor without a word. I could feel squishy bones shifting out of place as my black claws flicked his collarbone into a shattered state, his screams echoed deep into the harmonic resonant chamber I now called home.
I raised my hands over my head as his soul whimpered pleas for mercy but his body crumbled into silence, the Jedi's simple teachings not able to block out his true emotions...unadulterated blissful hysteria. The murky tentacles of my power had already eagerly begun siphoning away his life essence. Soon, only a pile of scummy paperlike strands remained on the temple's frigid floor.
His lightsaber clattered to the ground, my capability affected another Force sapient much heavier than those blind to the web of its influence...Each new weakling she brought me allowed me to gleam what others cannot from the Force, my building energy well was taken...my skills were earned. The bloodless carnage beautifully doubled as a message-- the Jedi could not protect the next generation flocking to their Coruscant temple, the familiarity of my own fate now used to massacre my peers.
Fear would spread quietly, trust in the Order unraveling subtly until the Republic felt the need to tighten its grip on their pet Jedi. My master's brilliant web drawing closed...word of 1 missing force sensitive could be ignored--But the roaring screams of their Jedi Knights energies shredded into my own under Cognus would not be so easily passed over. We had repeated this cycle once a month for the past 6...Rumblings along the rim soon came of missing Jedi blamed on the Hutts or roving Mandolorian bands-- the galaxy now feared its outer layer.
Cognus emerged from the shadows, her Iktotchi face splitting into a grin of pointed teeth. "It is time, my son. You must travel to this world's Jedi temple and forge yourself a more personal instrument for your dark reign." I knelt before my master, her cane lightsaber crossed before me as my soul soaked in her recognition of my achievements.
A smile broke under my mask for the first time in many rotations--there would be no mercy, no hesitation, no halting until...my heart began to beat quickly--I still did not know what I truly wanted from this life. I only knew the destiny that lay before me, there was truly still nothing else now.
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The fleeting years had worn on slowly in the depths of the ancient Sith temple on Dantooine. Cognus had pushed me far beyond the limits of what my adolescent body and mind thought possible, 5 short years had crafted me into something much more powerful than the other 16 I had wasted with my family. Through sheer will and anger alone I persevered through months on end of malignant torture and rituals, rarely seeing the glare of day.
I stood now garbed head to toe in shining silver armorweave and the same short yellow shoto my master granted me, no longer did my palms quake when gracing it but rather I adopted its imbalanced handicap on my strength. I prayed nearly day and night on that stupid grassy planet's dark caverns for the time I would craft my own dark expression of my power...
The ancient mask of Darth Malgus had become my righteous blessing, refashioned into an antiox breathing apparatus to protect my Kel Dor physiology from the toxins of other sentients freely breathed. Its sinister lines and fearsome visage served as an apt warning to any who might stand against me, painfully fused to my jaw after arriving here on the planet.
Cognus had forged me into a living javelin as she promised when I was immature and mindless. My affinity for harnessing the life force of others to sustain and strengthen myself grew with each ruthless trial, captivating my aging Sith master nearly as much as her growing collection of sabers.
I could drain the vitality from victims to the point of near disintegration if only given enough time to attune myself to their unique vibration. She doted on me saying I was like one named Darth Nihilus who nearly brought the republic to its knees nearly 3 or 4 millinea ago...His reign had been ruined by his Sith Triumvirate, A system that saw 3 beings hold what my master wielded with ease. There was no place for division amongst true practitioners of pungent power.
I hated the comparison in earnest, each achievement I wrenched from the depths of the Force Cognus was able to bring up one who could exert such influence with more cunning and ferocity. She forced me to practice my technique endlessly, slaughtering scores of unlucky captives from across Dantooine brought to our hidden Sith sanctum until upgrading me to our current Jedi bounty. Their terrified faces still torment my opaque dreams, each plaguing my sanity with their hollow-turned visages.
I had become quite proficient in Form VII, Juyo lightsaber combat. Fusing treacherous attacks with devastating aggression, my tarnished emotions were merely a mindstate needed to achieve such balance when pressing my will through the art of combat.
As well as proficient in Niman or Form VI for integrating sapping Force attacks with my rapid blade work gleamed from my master's teachings. I wielded my Shoto Lightsaber when training but spent most of my time honing each saber type with both Forms, drooling for the moment I could choose my own with each swing of the small cutter pushing me closer.
In addition to sharpening my deadly Force and martial talents over the years, Cognus ensured I learned cunning and patience in equal measure under her ruthless tutelage. We often played Dejarik for hours, her testing my foresight through the strategy game's various intricate pieces and sacrificial gambits.
They were fond memories of the old monster that had become my only companion...I often lost due to my lack of any kind of authentic patience, only Jedi need to hide for so long. My master was the one who truly feared them, not the other way around...She would have crushed my innards if she could read my thoughts now.
When not engaged in my immersed relentless conditioning, she scoured the galaxy for Sith lore and artifacts abandoned since before Bane's legacy, adding further prowess to our growing repository with each shady commodity. I rarely ventured farther than the meadowed plateau that bordered the wasteland around the underground sanctuary...only within the last year had I taken the liberty of cresting the surface world with cold regard.
Dantooine slowly became a living nexus of the dark side's concealed history, I was its concierge, standing clouded vigil during her loot-filled errands. Holocrons filled with the Darth teachings of Malgus, Nihilus, and my master's teacher Zannah had intrigued me the most during these quiet times.
The Holocrons possessed remnants of tenets that I held more than Cognus' judgments. The Galactic warmonger Malgus spoke of strength through bitter conquest of the feeble, but his empire fell as surely as his flesh...True power comes from threading both devotion and terror into one's empire through respect as well as anguish.
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Nihilus knew only an endless hunger that consumed all in its path. To fully succumb to an endless hunger for consumption is to lose one's grasp on purpose--Purpose, even a dark one, channels the chaos of the inner dark into an ordered wielding of its capacity. Nihilus became a mindless animal, not a master, by allowing the shadow to devour his essence as much as his prey.
Zannah's lessons of unending hidden planning hinted at deeper lore sealed away, secrets of Naga Sadow that could shape destinies if uncovered...her journals were frightening glimpses into the black sorcery one needed to sustain their dark power spiritually. These three foundations, cracked as they may be, would serve as my own till I carved a new unshattering pillar for my magnific legacy to stand.
The time finally had come at last to step, even if only slightly, from the darkness that Bane had cultivated and cast the first stone triggering the multifaceted scheme Cognus spent decades devising...The galaxy needed to be reminded of what it truly feared. We would not announce ourselves as my master had explained but rather would build the blocks for our mighty empire to begin anew, her roots now set in me.
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The sleek Republic bomber granted to me graciously by Cognus streaked through Dantooine's lilac skies, banking toward the coordinates of my target-- The geriatric Jedi temple where the Republic had established a mining facility, heedless of the true power still permeating those sacred stones much deeper below.
Folly. Their trivial industrial efforts provided the perfect cover for my incursion nonetheless. My raven robes and silver armorweave blended perfectly with the blackness of night as I leapt from my ship happily, allowing it to crash directly into the facility's automated laser turrets. Alarms blared across the stark green terrain as the vessel's payload exploded perfectly in line with its shrill impact.
I pulled the night around myself like a veil, imperceptible as I sliced open an access hatch near the second tower of the large metallic base. Republic troopers scrambled in panic far below, believing they were under direct assault, most likely from the local Mandalorians tribes. Little did they know the true threat moved silently amongst them already.
The glow of my blade fizzled as focused its edge into the layers of steel, forcing it open with a silent blast. I slunk through twisting corridors, attuning my senses to locate this planet's precious Kyber crystals hidden somewhere below, ancient deposits lost to time. Their unique shimmering resonance in the Force called to me from subterranean chasms like a small bell's chime.
I made my way past the new construction quickly into a winding deep tunnel below the grassy surface. The kyber's melody grew intense, throbbing in my brain as I drew closer to its source. Strange hieroglyphs marked the chamber walls showing Ratakan builders harvesting crystals eons ago, likely for early proto-lightsabers or possibly something even more grand....
Finally, before me, a massive kyber formation unlike anything I had ever seen before, pulsating angry vibrant azure and white colors with my presence. The crystals cried a warning only I could hear, their lattice structure teeming with forms like the horrendous faces of Rancor.
I raised my hand toward the exquisitely haunting Kyber mineral formation, siphoning the Force energy from its gleaming planes and angles for a moment. The screeching intensified for an instant and then went silent. A single perfect yet large kyber shard broke free, flying to my open palm with a ringing tune. The remaining formation collapsed into sparkling rubble around me as the chamber went pitch-black. I sat there alone with my empty mind grasping at subtleties within the Force.
My prize was secured and soul-centered, I sprinted back through the disorientating tunnels leading toward the surface without stopping. Another earned smile came over me knowing Dantooine would soon be ripe for the taking by my master, this crystal would be my last step in truly being what I was meant to be.
I scrambled into a ventilation duct just as the sound of soldiers filled the corridor behind me. Republic Troopers poured in where I had stood moments before. Officers barked hopeless orders over the communication links about scanning the forests for their hidden aggressor.
Chaos had come to this backwater world as intended. Just as I reached the central ventilation shaft, an enormous black furry paw snatched my throat. I was lifted off the ground by vicious physical strength to stare into bloodshot Wookiee eyes radiating hatred from the darkness, only a few feet away from the slashed entrance I created before. The Wookie grumbled something gravely as it braced against my straining.
My hands reflexively went for my lightsaber before a second snarling albino Wookiee ripped the shoto from my belt. I reached desperately for the Force, only to feel the breath crushed from my lungs by the first guard's raw muscle, cutting off my supply of breathable gas. From the smoke emerged a Trandoshan in a gleaming white Republic uniform --His slit pupils dilated hungrily.
I focused my force abilities on keeping my esophagus from collapsing as the creature spoke. "Well, well...what do we have here?" he rasped with predatory interest in my presence, examining Malgus' mask and black robe. "A ssslimy little sssaboteur or sssomeone more dangerousss perhapsss?" I thrashed in the Wookiee's unrelenting vice, the second albino Wookie now gripped my arms so tight they nearly burst from the sockets to the joints of my elbows.
The Trandoshan forked tongue flicked as he chuckled. "Don't like to talk?" He eyed the large blue kyber crystal that had tumbled from my ebony robes during the grapple. The lizard gently picked it up, recognition dawning in his reptilian eyes as he mustered a short whistle.
"Are you--You can't be with that old witch Cognusss." Shock rippled through me. How could this Republic officer know my master's name? He chuckled at my aghast silence. "Put him down, brothersss. I make it my businesss to know all playersss in thisss game...even onesss who find pleasssure in blowing up my facilitiesss." He bowed almost mockingly as the Wookies dropped me with a cooing noise. "De'Busssk Trazzek, ssson of sssenator Da'dusss Trazzek..." I weighed my predicament cautiously before De'busk spoke again.
I readied my breath. "My trust is not earned so easily." The Wookiees snarled at me but relaxed their slobbering slightly as their master continued. "Allow me to invite you to my private villa...Unlesss." I hesitated then inclined my head slowly in agreement, calling my short borrowed lightsaber to my side. The Wookiees regarded me roughly beside De'busk and took up guard positions as we trudged in silence down the vent shaft near the tip of the refinery.
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Now safely behind closed doors, the Trandoshan commander offered something far more valuable --" Ssso, you get rid of thisss massster Zinn and I willfully ignore all that you and the old lunatic..." I flashed him a look of anger before he continued speaking in a gravelly voice. "The forressst lady have planned here on Dantooine..." He shifted in the comically large crimson chair in his estate's parlor.
"Yes yes...though I doubt you could stop us, next time I will not be so obvious with my methods..." The idea of draining these three idiots of their force played on my mind but I solely listened on as he named off several commanders, senators, and high-powered corrupted scum with....like-minded interests as him.
The most interesting of these contacts given to meet with at my discretion was the current Hutt leader named Kiro and a young force-sensitive Mandolorian....Jarelle. If I could position her as the next Mandalor there would be no one opposing me on the Outer Rim.
"Ssso? Do we have a deal, my friend?" The large Trandoshan stuck his scaled palm toward me, I sensed subtle flecks of apprehension as he gave up the knowledge he held so dear. " We are not friends...you answer to me now. Do not mistake this as a sign to act on your own free will."
I ripped him toward me with the Force causing the fake throne to collapse as the table screeched on the tiled floor, the two sentries attempted to fire but I jumped back nearly causing them to hit each other. Their signature Wookie calls howling with anxiety.
All three fell to their knees as the force crushed around them like the weight of a landing starship, my retaliation tasted lovely... "NEVER TOUCH ME AGAIN..." My hands released them as I crushed open the glass doors to the frivolous home he stole from the natives.-- Patience and cunning were the way of Banite Sith.
In my mind, I hoped my master would be well pleased by this unexpected progress. I broke into a full sprint, taking the kyber crystal into my hand as my feet rushed through the darkness. Cognus would love would dark I have wrought from the earthen depths, I was so sure.