Chapter Text
Whae Rynn approached the matte black shuttle with lightsaber in hand. Her thumb rubbed the activation, uncertain whether or not she needed to activate her weapon yet. Her shuttle rested about two hundred meters behind her, landed on the northern edge of the knoll. She did not sense the Sith she had been tracking from the Wheel nearby. The foul woman waited for Whae somewhere further away. That was what she told herself. The dark side clouded Whae’s senses, leaving her feeling as though the end could descend upon her before she could react.
The shuttle’s ramp descended when Whae got within thirty meters. She stopped, activated her lightsaber with a snap-hiss, and raised her sentinel yellow blade. Whae stiffened as footsteps clapped down the ramp. She stood and watched. Patience was the way of the Jedi. Knowledge and defense. She sensed another—the man ensorcelled by the Sith—filled with suspicion. He poked out from within the shuttle with blaster raised.
“Hold right there, Jedi!” the man called out. “Don’t you dare step closer!”
Whae frowned, not daring to lower her lightsaber. She carefully watched the spacer for any sign of aggression. All the while, she wondered about his relationship with the Sith Lord she pursued. Had she mentally enslaved him as Whae feared? Or did he join her of his own free will? Perhaps his services had been bought, that thought made his willingness to face her illogical.
“Lower the blaster,” Whae commanded. She struggled with the temptation to use a mind trick against the spacer. She hoped it would prove effective. Otherwise, it might compel him to attack. Her eyes flickered around the knoll their shuttles sat on. “Where is she? Where’s the Sith?”
“She’s somewhere else,” the man said. “I’m just her pilot. I don’t know why she wanted to come here.”
Whae did not believe the spacer. He struck her as the type who lied with ease. The Force did not ring with his lie, yet she could not believe him. She suspected his former line of work—she was assuming he had only recently come into the employ of this Sith—had required deception good enough to potentially fool a Jedi. It was either that or he learned his tricks from the Sith he served.
“You must know which direction she headed off in.”
The spacer gestured toward the southwest with his blaster. Whae spotted a distant wood in the rising hills. “Off that way. She was lugging some great red pyramid.”
Whae felt a great swell of disturbance at the news. What the spacer described sounded like a Sith holocron, though oversized. But those should have been destroyed, stored within the temple, or lost to time.
Though it does explain where the Sith learned of the dark side. She must’ve found one by chance. Whae then frowned and rubbed her jaw. But then why would she take it with her? What strange secret could it hold?
“Did you notice anything peculiar about the holocron?” Whae asked the spacer.
He blinked and then tilted his head thoughtfully. “I think I saw it glow once or twice… though that might have only been once we landed on Ziost.”
Whae considered his words. She had never heard of holocrons having a close relationship with a world, but then those she had interacted with had been designed to only provide instruction. The personality of the Jedi Knight or Master who produced them had not been incorporated into those holocrons.
But the nature of the Sith meant they would be more likely to embed their personality into any holocron they produced. At least, that was what Whae presumed. She had learned of the Sith as a youngling and Padawan. But all of those lessons concerned figures that had perished thousands of years ago. She knew nothing of their personalities and quirks. Certainly not enough to understand the one whose trail she followed.
“Thank you for the information, citizen,” Whae said. “I would suggest you leave.”
The spacer shook his head. “No offense, Jedi, but my cards are on her. She managed to survive one Sith Lord, and he’s been busy pulling the strings of the Senate.”
Whae froze. There were more Sith? They influenced the Senate? “Who?” she demanded, heart hammering in her chest.
“Survive, and I’ll tell you,” the spacer said with a shrug. “Frankly, I fear she might kill me if I tell you now and she comes back.”
The Jedi sighed and then nodded. “So be it. I’ll return with her lightsaber, and then you’ll tell me about the other Sith.”
“Bet,” said the spacer. He holstered his blaster. “But I wouldn’t put credits on you surviving your encounter with her. I’d be more likely to draw an idiot’s array three times in a row than you are to survive Darth Gladiolus.”
So that’s her name. Gladiolus. Whae then hissed. I know that title. ‘Darth’. She’s a Sith Lord, just like the ones manipulating the Senate. She started off on the Sith Lord’s trail. Like the Jedi a thousand years ago, I’ll confront her—and destroy this Sith.
Darth Gladiolus paused the moment she sensed a presence moving in her direction. She had just reached the top of the cliff overlooking the plain before Lord Salazar’s city. The sun hung high in the afternoon sky, though she did not trust it to remain there long. Evening would inevitably come, and the temperature would plummet. Already her breath fogged. She doubted the wintery chill would relax any time soon. Thanks to the Force, she did not need to worry about the weather. She only needed to focus on the Jedi she now sensed.
“You must move on, Lord Gladiolus. The Jedi approaches and you cannot permit her to choose your battleground.”
‘So it is her that I sense.’
“As if you ever required me to know that.”
She snorted. Lord Salazar had insisted on the bond before she departed his abandoned home. She found his presence in the back of her mind was intrusive, but it was weak, only permitting Lord Salazar to know her thoughts and feelings. The bond did allow him some contact with the Force through her. But Gladiolus’s power was not so limited that she risked being overtaken by the long-dead Sith Lord. Should he attempt to leap from his holocron and into her body, she would crush his spirit. He would be shattered, cursed to never experience life after death beyond the netherworld of the Force, the place where the dead joined with the Cosmic Force to perpetuate its parasitic relationship with the Living Force.
The Sith Lord entered the wood. She sensed the creatures that avoided her attention throughout her journey to the ruined city. They remained near enough that she spotted their movement through the ferns, but never so close that she might manage to strike them or even make out their features. Gladiolus fixed their presence within her mind as a faint thing, something to note as she progressed, but not something to fixate upon.
Her fixation was the Jedi, the one whose presence profaned Ziost and brought shame upon the Sith Orders of old. She would perish by Gladiolus’s hand, and the Jedi would once more remain ignorant of the lurking threat in the galaxy.
It’s a shame I cannot use her to expose the others without drawing more attention to myself. I know not how strong her mind is. Maybe in another life I could impose my will upon her and wash away knowledge of me. But would it work? Would it last? How could she explain Plagueis and the senator Sidious without explaining where she learned the truth?
And there’d be their retaliation.
Darth Gladiolus clicked her tongue. It pained her to know that she could not use the Jedi nipping at her heels to destroy her fellow Sith. She loved the prospect of her enemies fighting each other, sapping their strength while she grew more powerful in secret. But she had already promised Lord Salazar that she would slay the Jedi that had pursued her from the Wheel to Korriban to Ziost.
And once she destroyed this Jedi, Darth Gladiolus would move against the next enemy. She did not know who they were yet, but she suspected her subconscious mind already possessed an idea. Soon they would be revealed to her, a truth she believed wholeheartedly.
She stopped and reached out with the Force. Gladiolus made no effort to mask her presence in the Force. The Jedi would be a fool to not sense the Sith before her. She desired to impose fear upon her enemy. On Ziost, Darth Gladiolus had no need for secrecy. After all, any danger there might be was already aware of her. She had no cause to fear the Jedi on Coruscant sensing her. The shroud of the dark side spread across their world cloaked her activities and ensured she, as a Sith Lord, could act with near impunity.
Her senses expanded outward, stretching further and further out. Gladiolus sensed the dark side critters of Ziost. They fled at the mere touch of her power, no longer content to prowl or loiter as they had. Some fed off her power, propelled by her will. She briefly wondered where they were headed—and then she sensed the Jedi.
Her foe screamed as the creatures of Ziost swarmed her. Gladiolus sensed the lightsaber activate and began swerving and slicing through the creatures.
Good. She’s distracted.
Gladiolus continued along the path before her, content to take her time. About nine hundred yards remained between her and the struggling Jedi. While she could manipulate the Force to quicken her pace, she had no cause to hasten yet.
And through it all, she held a metaphysical eye on the Jedi, busy battling the dark creatures of Ziost. Killing one had spurned several, previously content to flee before Darth Gladiolus, to charge and attack the offensive interloper. While they had not managed to overwhelm the Jedi, it could happen. The Jedi would likely escape her encounter with the beasts with her life, but she would be severely weakened. Gladiolus would be shocked if the girl proved a challenge afterward. Yet she would be more disappointed if the Jedi failed to escape the beasts. She should have the power and drive to hold them off and maybe even outright beat them back.
If necessary, I will frighten away the beasts. They are of the dark side, and so my greater power will enthrall them to my will. The Jedi can curse me if she wishes. I would hope she recognizes the insult for what it is, but not even Morgan le Fay knows the mind of the Jedi. Regardless of her feelings, she shall fall to my hand or my blade. Her fate is already sealed, and her failure to flee and report to her Masters that I walk the galaxy shall bring about their doom and destruction.
The Sith Lord grinned. The Jedi would be punished for her failure to practice prudence, and so she would be destroyed.
Gladiolus almost floated through the wood. Soon she would be upon the Jedi, and soon she would be victorious. After all, her strength gave her tremendous power—and that power would grant her victory over her enemies forever.
Whae Rynn panted as she severed the head of another beast. They had burst out of the underbrush, snarling and half-mad. She sensed the dark side wrapped around them, rank and potent. The first few had been deceptively weak. But those that followed held the taint so thickly she lost her grasp on where she could find the Sith she pursued.
Fool, fool, fool! Whae thought with panic. You should have known the Sith would prepare something for when you finally pursued her on foot! Her yellow-bladed lightsaber thrummed as she spun and slashed, seeking to remain ahead of the beasts as they continued their assault. She burned a few with her blade, but most who made contact perished from the blow. For her part, Whae had a few scratches and several bruises. None of them had managed to bite her, though a few got close with their large, saliva-slickened fangs. Dark white drops spat from their mouths, sizzling upon contact where the drops landed.
“Damned beasts,” she grumbled, raising her weapon high. Five prowled around her, slinking through the ferns just beyond view. The sun finally began descending. Whae tried to not fear what might happen once the sun sunk beneath the horizon. The Force suggested nothing good could come about if she failed to handle the beasts and the Sith before nightfall. She mentally cursed the murky influence of the dark side. A growling beast yanked her attention to the side. Wet fangs shimmered. Whae clenched her weapon as she prepared to handle the beasts.
They needed to be defeated before the Sith arrived.
One came howling out of the wood. It sprung forward and then shot up, attempting to land atop her and maul her fallen form. Whae ducked beneath the beast with a lunge and then swung her blade as the beast soared over her. She stepped forward, swirling her lightsaber about as though it could mystically become a shield. She heard the beast’s corpse crash to the forest floor, followed by a faint sizzle from its drool.
Luckily, not a drop touched her.
Before the next beast could target Whae, a voice cut through the late-day wood. “Begone, fell beasts of ancient past! Your master calls you away from her prey! Begone to your dens until the dawn comes anew!”
Whae’s heart stilled. It was a woman’s voice, so thick with commanding power that she nearly deactivated her lightsaber and fled into the woods. Instead, she shifted her stance to strengthen her foundation. The dark side polluted the wood around her, dulling Whae’s senses. She could not detect the Sith as she detected the beasts now fleeing from her.
Whae felt no relief as they vanished into the underbrush, willed away by their dark master. Evil had come for her.
“Did you send them after me?” Whae bellowed into the darkening wood. She shivered. Ziost was a cold planet, one of tundra and alpine. The Force warmed her, but that required a degree of focus slowly slipping through her fingers. “Was all of this your doing, Sith?”
Her voice echoed weakly through the wood. Whae shifted where she stood, blade raised to defend against a thrown lightsaber or a burst of dark side Force power. She once read in the depths of the Archives that Sith could manipulate the Force to create a lightning burst powerful enough to kill a sentient. She would not allow herself to be taken out in that fashion.
“So what if it was, trespasser?” the Sith replied, slightly delayed. Her voice sounded closer and it no longer carried any power. “Soon you will be dead, and I shall be free to go about my business in peace.”
“So you are here for business,” Whae said. “I had wondered what foul treachery brought you to a dead world like Ziost.”
“Dead because of Jedi butchery or Sith treachery. I know which I think it is.”
Whae clicked her tongue. Any records concerning Ziost’s fate had been lost to time or sabotage. It had fallen by the time of the Brotherhood of Darkness was defeated at Ruusan. Like Korriban and Dromund Kaas, the Jedi had periodically inspected the worlds, checking to ensure no evil dared arise on those worlds ever again.
“Come forth, then,” Whae said. “If you are so confident you will kill me, step into the light. Let me see you.”
Silence met her request. Whae grimaced instead of bristling. She felt insulted by the silence. The Sith decided to ignore her Jedi foe instead of responding as Whae responded to the dark fiend. Her gaze wandered the trees before her, focused on the direction she expected the Sith to emerge from. Yet no crimson blade illuminated the trees and the ferns.
Is she hiding from me? Whae wondered. She opened herself up to the Force and grimaced as the taint of Ziost crashed against her. The dark side remained thick and potent, blotting her senses and filling her with a dangerous delirium. The dark side surrounds us, easing her while setting me on edge. Why would she hide? Shouldn’t she notice that and just charge in?
A presence neared Whae. She glanced over her shoulder and stilled. A dark, looming shape fluttered through the trees about twenty meters away. The figure glided toward her, a ghoul at ease in the wind. Whae raised her lightsaber defensively, never taking her gaze off the figure. She believed it to be the Sith woman she pursued, despite her senses telling her nothing.
“Sad little Jedi,” the cloaked figure simpered. “Pathetic, weak Jedi.”
“How about you come find out how ‘weak’ and ‘sad’ this ‘little Jedi’ is, Sith!”
The figure paused, as though surprised. Whae spotted violently yellow eyes within black sockets. The woman’s lips, mostly black with some pink, parted with incredulity. And then they drew into a thin smirk.
“How delightful,” the Sith said. “You have some willpower after all.” Her lightsaber then activated with a familiar snap-hiss. Whae tensed at the sight of a dreaded crimson blade. The Sith raised her blade so it pointed directly at Whae’s heart. “A shame you will soon be dead.”
In the span of a blink, the Sith crossed the distance. Whae blocked aside the Force-powered thrust, stepped back, and swung at the enemy.
This is the fate of the Jedi, she reminded herself. To confront evil, and to destroy it.
Darth Gladiolus parried the Jedi’s pitiful attempt at a counter. She might be disappointed her swift thrust failed, but she would have been more disappointed if she slew the Jedi with ease. She wanted a challenge, even if that required her to bait and play with her foe.
They dueled for several tedious minutes. The Jedi panted as she struggled to keep pace with Gladiolus’s brutal onslaught. She confessed herself disappointed by her foe’s weakness. She had hoped to find an enemy talented in some aspect of the Force or combat. Instead, the girl Jedi revealed her ineptitude. Gladiolus could have easily done away with her foe, but that bored her. She wanted to be entertained for however long she could justify this duel.
She slammed a Force push into the Jedi’s ribs. The girl screeched as she flew up and into a mass of trampled ferns. The Jedi crashed to the ground, lightsaber deactivating as it slipped from her hand, and rolled over a few times. Gladiolus approached slowly, blade lowered yet ready to counter any attack. Soon, the Jedi would grow desperate. Cornered animals were dangerous right before their death, and the Jedi before her was most certainly a cornered animal.
The Jedi crawled away from Gladiolus. Shocked hazel eyes peered out through choppy brown hair. Fear rippled from her. For a Jedi, to feel fear meant death. As for a Sith, sensing fear in the foe was exquisite. She could almost taste the terror.
“Your fate has already been decided,” Gladiolus whispered. “Will you surrender to it, little Jedi? Or will you fight? Only with the strength of your hatred will you acquire the power necessary to overcome me.”
“I… I will never give in to… the dark side,” the Jedi said. She breathed out heavily and raised a hand, fingers splayed and directed past the Sith Lord.
Gladiolus sensed the lightsaber as it leaped into the air. She spun her weapon, deflecting the weapon as its golden blade ignited. It deflected away, sputtering as it tumbled back into the underbrush.
“Disappointing,” the Sith Lord whispered. She then raised her left hand. Old memories awoke within her, channeling a hatred she had not felt in many years. “Farewell, Jedi.”
Black lightning poured from her fingertips like on that day, so long ago, when she had been nothing more than an acolyte in Surrey. The Jedi screeched like a dementor. But unlike those foul beasts, she could not flee. All she could do was suffer, and then with a faint whimper, die.
Darth Gladiolus stopped the flow of power, once she felt the death in the Force. She then lowered the hand that slew the Jedi. All that remained of the corpse was blackened ashes vaguely shaped like a person. She swept a hand before her and the ashes were banished, sent fluttering like black snow through the darkening wood. She then deactivated her weapon and returned it to her belt. As she turned, the Sith Lord paused. While she knew she should swiftly return to Lord Salazar and boast of her victory, something had caught her attention.
The fallen Jedi’s weapon.
The Sith Lord stepped over to where it rested in the ferns. She leaned over and picked up the discarded weapon. Several seconds passed as she considered the lightsaber. It had served its purpose—to its former master. But was that reason enough to abandon it on Ziost? Should a Jedi try to hunt down Gladiolus, this could be evidence linking her to the newly dead Jedi. After all, who could kill a Jedi in single combat but a Sith? Not even the greatest warriors of the Mandalorians managed to slay a Jedi in single combat with ease. Or so Lady Bastila had told her long ago.
She tossed the weapon into the air, watching it tumble end over end before falling back into her hand. The hilt was cool to the touch and winked the sun at her. Gladiolus thumbed the ignition and stared at the yellow blade it produced. It was a lovely color for a Jedi weapon. It was a lovely color for a trophy.
It’s a lovely, love color for a tool to mask my true nature.
She then grinned, wide and malicious. Gladiolus belted the Jedi’s saber on her left hip, directly across from her Sith lightsaber. The difference between them burned into her mind. One was golden, shining with hope and joy. The other was a twisted thing, bearing hatred and resolution.
(She would not admit it to herself, but the secret corner of her mind where Edelweiss Potter’s memories resided resonated with the golden blade. In another life, she could have been a great Jedi. But that life had been long abandoned, shed like a snake’s skin.)
Gladiolus turned on her heel and headed back to Lord Salazar’s home. She had promised to inform him of the Jedi’s death. Her new weapon would confirm her accomplishment.
Twilight arrived, a somber orange, as Gladiolus passed once more through the broken wall. She found and followed the same avenue that brought her to the roundabout near Lord Salazar’s home. She trailed down the narrow road with its golden trees, the light fading with every step. Instead of entering and passing through the strange house as she had on her first visit, Gladiolus leaped from the road to the first level’s roof, and then up the next three. She twirled through the air as she passed through the open space into the airy top level.
Lord Salazar’s holocron activated as Gladiolus stepped forward. The familiar face of Salazar Slytherin appeared. There was a weathered aspect to him that was unfamiliar. Unnatural. Gladiolus hated the sight, but it reminded her of what would soon come to pass. Her first Sith master, the one whose legacy she sought to uphold, would soon pass on.
“You have slain the Jedi,” Lord Salazar remarked.
“Naturally,” Gladiolus replied with a wide grin. She removed the Jedi’s weapon from her belt. “I have taken her weapon as a trophy.” She thumbed the ignition, twirled it about, and then deactivated it. “I think I will keep it with me. It’ll make for a mighty fine disguise once I acquire brown and tan robes.”
Her first master raised a prompting eyebrow. “So you would masquerade as a Jedi?”
“It would allow me to travel more freely and permit me to openly carry a lightsaber at my belt.”
Lord Salazar hummed. “I see the merit in that idea. But there is something else that draws you to the weapon. I can feel it, even if you resist understanding the reason gnawing away within.”
Gladiolus knew what Lord Salazar meant. Crimson and gold had been her house colors, once. But she had been someone else then. She squashed the rising tide of nostalgia and denied his claim. He grunted, not completely convinced by what he sensed from her. She would not verbally deny his claims. He would expect that, and he would happily argue with her over the matter. The color of the Jedi’s lightsaber meant nothing to her. The weapon was a means to an end, a reminder of what she accomplished this day. Though she had failed to destroy Darth Plagueis, she had destroyed the first Jedi she encountered. It boosted her power and proved a balm to her ego.
“Still, I am proud of you,” Lord Salazar finally continued. “You have become a fine Sith Lord. After all, you have now proved your power against a Jedi Knight.”
“I have only slain one, Lord Salazar. Ten thousand remain, along with two Sith Lords who stand opposed to my ambitions.”
Lord Salazar stilled at the news of the other Sith. “Only two?” he murmured, chilled to his core. “What do you know of them?”
“They’re but a master and an apprentice, though I think the apprentice has already selected a pupil of his own. A… backup plan, so to speak.”
“How fascinating,” Lord Salazar muttered, almost sickened. “When you have the chance, speak with Lady Bastila about the wisdom of Darth Revan. She, I believe, will provide you with wisdom concerning this new breed of Sith.”
Gladiolus scowled. “And why should I speak to her about these two and her great master? You clearly know what—”
“Calm your temper, Lord Gladiolus. I believe these Sith foes of yours descend from one who found the hidden Sith holocron of Darth Revan. I cannot say for certain, but that is my suspicion. There’s a chance other Sith have discovered wisdom in limiting how many we Sith number.”
Her scowl weakened into a frown. “Why would they seek to limit the number of Sith? The Jedi are not restrained so.”
“We are prone to infighting in a fashion that does not occur among Jedi. Any time they have ever faced internal strife, there has always been the influence of the dark side at hand. Some are easily turned to our ways, Lord Gladiolus. But others are not. For them, they must be tempted to savor the dark side, to need its power to achieve a great end.” He grinned. “For example, you. You needed the dark side of the Force to destroy those who oppressed you, for only with the dark side could your chains be broken.”
Gladiolus nodded begrudgingly. Lord Salazar simplified the reason Edelweiss Potter embraced the dark side of the Force and the ways of the Sith. For her, they had been means to an end. It helped tremendously that Lady Bastila described the nature of the Force and its dark side in terms that resonated with the Girl-Who-Lived. Yet from the moment she brushed against the Force, the dark side had claimed her.
“But since you have already made enemies of them, you cannot expect those other Sith to work with you. If they are exposed, they might seek to throw you before the Jedi and then vanish back into obscurity.”
“If that is their plan, then I will find a way to differentiate myself. I will not be associated with their line of cowards and sulking dogs.” Gladiolus grinned, toothy and vicious. “I have an idea. One that will spike me into the hearts of the Republic as villain and hero alike. An image that can be wielded as a weapon once the time comes to destroy the Jedi entirely.”
“Oh? What plan do you have?” asked Lord Salazar.
“Slavery. The Republic claims to care, yet I caught slavers on a world of their own. I will purge the galaxy of that filthy practice, and I will begin with a region the Republic has never brought to heel. A region that has remained all but inviolate since its borders stabilized.”
Lord Salazar blinked. Realization dawned upon him. He then threw back his head and laughed. That became the final image of her first Sith master: a man laughing as Darth Gladiolus, Dark Lord of the Sith, promised to achieve what generations of Jedi and Sith alike had failed to accomplish: bring the Hutts to heel.