Savage-Time Chapter 31 (Patreon)

[Onderon System, Orbit of Dxun]

Savage Opress

“The Dark Side! It’s just like in Dathomir the planet is steeped in it but it’s different” she looks confused and I feel as she stretches out her senses into the moon below, suddenly she flinches and stops.

“It’s darker, isn’t it?” Dathomir was steeped in darkness but it was a natural occurrence one of many that could occur in the universe, Dxun was different the planet had been home to many Sith Lords and the tomb of one of the great ones even among the Sith of the past, my arrival had restarted the process of corruption and the experiments I ordered my droids to conduct probably didn’t help.

“It feels like it wants to devour me” I feel Merrin’s fear and as I’m about to chastise her for it I feel her emotions changing. The fear quickly turns to shame, the shame morphs into disgust at herself, her disgust manifests as anger, and the anger turns into power.

A coppery scent that is very familiar to me reaches my nose and I see why, Merrin has her nails embedded in her palm which is now bleeding freely but my apprentice doesn’t feel the pain, she only feels the power. Merri expands her senses again and I try to stop her only to be interrupted by Nox who is watching intently what is happening.

Green mist exudes from her body as her power rises a considerable amount, there is sweat on her face and I can see her struggling to continue whatever she is doing but finally, it ends, she gasps before falling to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.

I turn towards my master who is inspecting Merrin, Nox turns back to me with a grin on his face “She is quite the impressive specimen, she failed to make the darkness of the world cower but it was a good show. Perhaps if the world was not so attuned to you she might have succeded but whatever you did to the temple on this moon has had some interesting consequences”

“Interesting how?”

“I think the animals here will mutate again, not unlike some of the rancors in Dathomir, had your girl succeeded she might have being able to control the fauna of the world”

I had heard of something like that, in another life, Shaak Tii would’ve taken control of Felucia and every inhabitant of the world would move at her whim, her padawan had been able to do the same but her darker nature had corrupted the world but had enabled her to control a bull rancor which was supposedly resistant to the force.

“Wait! Does that mean I can do it?” it would certainly make defending the moon easier.

“No” Nox laughs in my face as he crushes that hope “It’s a talent you have to be born with not one you can learn or rather one that is not worth learning if you don’t have the talent”

A shame but not everyone is born the same “Too bad my mother didn’t realize the gem she gave me”

“You’re quite right! She will make a great Sith! I will ensure she becomes the next Sorzus Syn!”

“Do you even know alchemy?”

“How do you even know who Sorzus Syn is?!” I think Nox was more surprised at my lack of confusion than I was at his goals, but I had a perfect answer to his question.

“Because of the Force, obviously”

“What?!” the expression on his face was too much and I started laughing.

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We had finally arrived at my temple and I had lost Merrin immediately as she went about exploring the place, I doubted that any of the traps would activate and I had ordered the droids to obey her orders as if they were mine as long as she didn’t try to compromise the security of the place or attack me.

I doubt if she would ever do that but it’s better to nip that issue at the bud. The droids had informed of what Maul had been up to and that they regularly sent some vials of the pools of darkness inside the temple to him. The liquid was decreasing in quantity but not in any amount that would be catastrophic. What was catastrophic was Nox’s insistence that you should dip his Holocron into a bucket filled with the strange liquid.

“You’re worrying too much, there is no flesh for me to recreate my body! And it is almost impossible to forge something into a spirit like Darth Nihilus”

“You just told me that if the worst came to pass the Holocron would explode!” I shouted back at him.

“But consider the rewards!” he was speaking as if the rewards were clearly outlined which they were not and worst of all he hadn’t figured out the spell Mother Talzin used so I still very much needed him.

“I said no!” he crawled back into the Holocron grumbling all the way.

“Commander, your pet died while you were away,” one of the droids said as he approached me

NOOOO!

“We prepared another one for you though, this one should live longer”

Well…I could live with that

“Great work” Merrin came barreling towards me with one of the Maalraas in her arms the things seemingly cowed by the girl who was approximately the same size as it and was gently purring in her arms, I didn’t even know the things could purr.

“I’m going to keep this one!” she spun in place while holding the nighthunter, I could almost picture it as a real cat.

“Where did you get it?”

“There is a bunch of them laying around the temple, one tried to attack me and I beat it up then the others ate it, and this one here started following me”

I think Merrin might have beaten the alfa and for some reason, the Maalraas think she is one of them since they only eat the alfa if it is beaten by another of their kind. This was potentially useful.

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[Boz Pity, Somewhere in the Arid Canyons]

Quinlan Vos

“You let them get away!” Kota was not very happy with the decision to wait and had sent his old padawan and a lot of the militia to pursue the children. Perhaps it was wrong to claim they were children because the atrocities they committed were so horrible but something wasn’t right, Quinlan could feel it!

“I think we’re mission some information, we will soon be contacting Coruscant and you can raise your opinion to the council” it was a polite way to dismiss Kota’s words since he and the council weren’t on good terms.

Kota scoffed but like the Jedi he was he chose to be patient, Quinlan Vos wanted to confirm the words of the enemy and rid himself of any doubt and should they words prove to be true then it was still a benefit as they could investigate the disappearances of younglings from the order’s care.

Soon the holo revealed the image of the Jedi Council, not all of them were in attendance in fact Quinlan could see that more than half of them weren’t there, not even Master Yoda. The grim face of Windu, the scowling face of Obi-Wan and the beautiful but very much angry face of Shaak Tii were the ones to great him.

“Is the council to busy to spare some time for the people hunting the Sith?” Kota sneered at the apparent laxity of the council.

“Things have changed, the war is starting again faster than we thought and certainly worse than before” Windu looked like never before, he usually looked angry or supremely relaxed but his face was now full of determination.

“I told you it was a bad idea to remove the Jedi generals from the front, I told you the peace wouldn’t hold and that we should’ve attacked without hesitation” Kota must have been waiting for the opportunity to say this, smugness was radiating out of him.

“If you have nothing to report then I will cut the connection, this is a waste of resources” Windu answers back without hesitation.

“I have some news” Quinlan speaks up before Kota can say anything too hard to explain “the Sith that we confronted claim to be younglings that were taken as the war was fought, I sensed no deception in their words. I have their names so you may conduct a search of the archives for the truth, there is also the matter of their Master”

Quinlan doesn’t want to say it as he knows it will cause Obi-Wan great pain but it needs to be said “They’re being trained by Darth Maul and if my hunch is correct he is close to us. There is no sense in risking his apprentices”

Obi-Wan who previously had a hand on his face quickly slams it down onto his seat, the other council members say nothing and Quinlan is glad he isn’t there, Obi-Wan is a good friend and the pain he feels would be a terrible thing to behold.

“This is a very serious matter” Kota is now calmer but there is a feeling of worry in his heart “we can’t be everywhere at once and per the decision of the council the knights are getting younger, they are easy prey for corruption”

“The names of the younglings were Kalifa and Jinx” Quinlan waits along with the rest of the council for the information to prove what they said as a lie but once Windu looks up from the data pad there is sadness in his eyes.

“They were from a group of younglings that was about to receive their chance to build their lightsabers, their ship was attacked by pirates and they were presumed dead” Windu gives the data pad to Shaak Tii “This is troubling”

“Yes, it is, how could you lose a group of younglings!” Kota is angry but Quinlan can feel that his anger is not directed at Windu or Quinlan himself, he is angry for what he feels he will be forced to do.

“You know better than anyone else that the Jedi can’t be everywhere!” Windu rises along with his voice “This is a tragedy one that we will work to rectify”

“I’m sure that is a great comfort for the children who find themselves as pawns for the Sith” the words are dripping sarcasm and if it was any other situation Quinlan may have applauded the bravery of the elderly Jedi Master as he stood up to the council or at least Master Windu.

“They have to die” the voice of Shaak Tii stops their argument, Windu is hesitant but he nods as does Obi-Wan.

“It is unfortunate…but we can’t allow them to become full-fledged Sith, I don’t envy your position,” Obi-Wan says calmy and if he didn’t see how much effort it took to say those words Quinlan would’ve said something “This is another failure that we will have to atone for”

“Don’t look as if you’ll be the one to swing the blade that ends their life, like always it will be up to me to do what you can’t…or won’t” Kota doesn’t say anything more as he leaves.

“Then we can’t offer them clemency, even if they abandon the Force entirely?” Quinlan doesn’t want to kill children, even if they’re evil children, and now that he knows that they suffered for the negligence of the order that feeling has grown.

“We cannot allow word of this to spread; having them alive would complicate things. Confidence in the order is low, we can’t afford a scandal like this” Shaak Tii says it so naturally as if it was a given.

“You’re putting politics over the life of children under our charge!”

“By Your own words we know that they’ve abandoned the order, we owe them nothing now that they’ve chosen the path of darkness” Windu reiterates the point without hesitation and Quinlan can do nothing else but be horrified by the response “That is why I spoke of rectifying this, we won’t let it happen to another but those younglings are lost”

“Obi-Wan…” Quinlan calls for what is widely believed to be the most compassionate Master in the council but Obi-wan can’t meet his eyes.

Quinlan Vos has been a good Jedi, he has followed his order’s tenets and believed in them wholeheartedly but for the first time in his life, he doubts.

He doubts being a Jedi and he doubts the orders he must follow.

Without saying anything more, he cuts the connection and in the planet's arid air, Quinlan thinks about what he will do once they defeat the children and he has watched as Kota put them to the sword.