Chapter 116: Stirrings in the Shadows
Warning! Chapters 115-117 were all posted back-to-back, make sure you pick up reading in the right place if you're returning to this fic!
Chapter 116: Stirrings in the Shadows
– Dathomir – 24.3 BBY -
Allaya Djo grimaced as she dueled three Nightsisters at once, only keeping up because of how much less skilled the trio were, compared to Master Morne. How the raid going on all around her had gotten past the scouts of not just the Singing Mountain Clan, but the three other clans that had agreed to meet at a neutral site, she didn’t know. However they’d done it, if not for the far superior skills at detecting the Dark Side that she’d learned from her Master, they’d have taken the conclave completely by surprise. As it was, she’d managed to shout a warning and rally defenders as the Nightsisters closed in.
Now, as she fought off the leader of the Nightsister raid and two of her subordinates, she could feel it as the tide was turning against the attackers. There were deaths happening on both sides, more than there should have been on her own, since no one clan had brought more than a handful of their best and weren’t working together. Yet these clans had brought their best, and her warning had prevented them from being taken off guard. Spells flew as she managed to dance around the Lightwhip of the leader and finally stab one of the lesser enemies through her heart. Spinning to use the dying Nigthsister as a shield, she bared her teeth at the remaining duo.
She didn’t know what had stirred the Nightsisters into this sort of blatant attack. She did know that they were going to regret it. A shared enemy would break the deadlock of negotiations that had been ongoing, bringing the other three clans of Witches fully into the fold. Their clans were, aside from the Singing Mountain, the most progressive on Dathomir. Once they struck back at the Nightsisters and solidified this new alliance, Allaya would be able to provide slots for the most open-minded of her sisters and new allies at the Ossus Academy. Not to mention giving over the instruction droids needed to bring the menfolk up to snuff on working with more modern technology.
True equality on Dathomir would be a long time coming, but she now had the tools to set things in motion in that direction, at least. To create a new caste system based on many she’d seen out in the greater galaxy, one that would be a bit more fair to all. Added to the greater exposure their best and brightest would get to the galaxy and the ways of the Force through the academy as well? The future was looking bright for their planet for the first time in a very, very long time.
They just needed to deal with these accursed Dark Witches and figure out why they were so dead set against that happening…
… … …
– Dromund System – 24.3 BBY –
Despite the seriousness of their current expedition, Izuku was grateful to get away from months of politicking. The three months since the first session of the Council of Free Stars had been extremely busy. Jumpstarting an interstellar government, one that was at least partially democratic and had over a thousand worlds to administer, was a back and mind-breaking task of epic proportions. It would have been much worse if he hadn’t deliberately designed things to offload as much of the day-to-day operation of the League as he could onto others. Yet, even having planned it that way from day one, setting up the various apparatuses of a true government had been an intense amount of effort.
Thankfully, they were now in a time window where those that had been appointed to create and fill up various departments like the Treasury and Judiciary had their marching orders and needed time more than attention. Likewise, an additional fifty worlds were set to join the Council in another two months, which caused a break in the buildup to make sense twice over. Of course, he and his still had plenty of other issues on their plate, one of which had led to them using this break to investigate something that had been on the back burner since they’d first encountered Zavra.
It said a lot about how little Izuku liked politics that part of him still considered their current trip a vacation. The ‘lost’ world of Dromund Kaas was not the sort of place that most would think of in the same sentence as words like relaxation, after all. Particularly not with how utterly the entire world reeked of the Dark Side, even from where they were drifting well out of the planet’s orbit. Of course, the relatively close confines of a Toru II with only Aayla, Zavra, Shaak Ti and a droid crew aboard did help offset the unpleasantness somewhat. The trip, based as it had been on Zavra’s very outdated knowledge, had taken them nearly two weeks from the closest still-mapped hyperlane she could identify.
Even the Force had been…oddly reluctant…to give up a path to the system. The closer they’d gotten, the harder the Veil had pushed back, ultimately blinding everyone but Izuku when it came to using the Force for navigation. His own ability to see a path forward had been restricted as well, not by lack of access, but by how far he could use his unique connection to the Cosmic Force. Tapping into it was overwhelming if he didn’t limit the range, and even narrowing his senses down to just tight corridor forward through nearly empty space had resulted in short jumps. Typically, no more than a few lightyears at a time, then he needed to recover for a few hours before trying again.
Admittedly, the fun ways the girls had helped him ‘recover’ from the mental overload had eased the journey. But that still didn’t change the fact that it shouldn’t have been so hard. The fact that it had been, that the Veil had clamped down so hard and tried to keep them away, had set the entire group on edge before they’d even made it to the system. Which had proven to be a good thing, as near as they could tell now.
They’d come in under stealth, both for the ship and their own tightly-held Force Cloaks. Something which Shaak Ti admitted made her glad she’d decided to leave her Padawan behind for this. Her original reason for doing so had been Zavra’s warning about old ghosts that tried to possess Force Sensitives, which wasn’t something she was willing to expose Asajj to just yet. Now, she knew there had been other good reasons. Asajj was talented with Force Cloak, but hadn’t put a serious focus on learning it over more traditional combat skills. It was doubtful she could have remained constantly under the technique for days the way the four of them were operating.
“For a supposedly abandoned planet, there is certainly a lot of movement down there, and I don’t mean the various monsters.”
All four of them had been studying the results of a multiple-day far-orbit passive scan of the planet. It was Shaak Ti who finally paused the stream of data from her holopad. The devices were another of Mei’s designs that hadn’t made it out of League space. Having far more computing power than a datapad, combined with the ability to project multiple full-color screens and a hard light keyboard, they were an immensely useful tool. All four of them had been using them to view multiple datastreams at a time, as they tried to analyze Dromund Kaas. Those datastreams, pre-processed by analysis droids to highlight notable areas, had caused immediate concern from all of them. Shaak Ti had simply been the first to voice it aloud. It was Zavra, looking confused, who spoke up next.
“I admit I’m not surprised to find someone here, but the greatest activity is around a set of marshes that didn’t even exist before. Some of this make sense, Kaas city still being ruins is no shock, for example. Not after invasion by the Republic, then bombardment by the Eternal Fleet. But the Dark Temple was still nearly untouched even after both, the Force Nexus there is too potent for mere bombardment to do anything too it. Yet, despite it still being there, those on the planet are thousands of klicks away. In a structure that isn’t a fraction as ancient, too. Though whatever this new fortress is, it’s still steeped deeply enough in the Dark Side to be felt even against the background Dark of the rest of the planet.”
All three of the others nodded, having noted the same thing, though they’d dismissed it more easily than Zavra. For reasons that Aayla was quick to bring up.
“There have been multiple Sith resurgences since then. I know there was at least one major battle here during the New Sith Wars, for example. It could easily be a structure built then, or even after, given that it’s still active. They might have wanted to stay far away from the body-snatching ghosts you mentioned, too. Didn’t you say the Temple had been sealed for a long time even by the Sith Empire of your day? Before some fool blew it open and caused a whole new round of ancient-Sith possessions?”
Zavra frowned but nodded, clearly struggling to remove her own view of what was important on Dromund Kaas from the current reality. She very rarely showed the effects of being out of her own time, and none of the other three particularly liked the way she was looking at the datastreams of old ruins. There was a mix of pain and wistfulness there that they weren’t quite sure how to deal with. It wasn’t like they could sympathize with wishing the Sith Empire hadn’t fallen, after all. Speaking up to divert her Zavra from whatever thoughts were clinging to her mind, Izuku tried to shift their focus to the ‘now.’
“Whatever they are up too, the fact that it reeks of the Dark Side even against the backdrop of the rest of the planet says, to me at least, that we might just have found something important here. There are very clearly Dark Siders down there, possibly quite a number of them. Though there seems to be at least some native civilian population, too.”
All of them nodded at that, even as Zavra seemed to shake herself free of past memories and refocused on the towering temple situated on the lone piece of solid ground amidst a marshland. The edges of that marshland were a good fifty klicks from what could only be some sort of resurgent Dark Temple. Past that marshland edge, though, were both a series of villages…and a far more modern looking military base. It wasn’t large, thankfully, only the sort of quick-build forward outpost that you could throw up with mostly prefabs and droid workers. Big enough to land transports or gunships at the small facility there, but not much else. The villages were clearly more populated, but just as clearly far more destitute.
“Slaves, almost certainly. If not in name, then at least in practical reality. Dromund Kaas had a large enough population, a lot of it slaves even in my time, that only a total destruction of the world as habitable would likely have gotten everyone. Whoever built the newer Temple and even newer military base likely found natives already present. Ones who weren’t in any position to resist a hostile takeover.”
Shaak Ti nodded at that, reactivating her own holopad and using it to throw up a map of the planet on the central display of the small mission briefing room they were using. Hotspots where some form of active ‘civilization’ had been identified were displayed on the map she’d put up.
“Aside from the villages and the outpost near the Temple, everything else looks like subsistence provision. Land cleared as much as possible for farming, with primitive facilities and minimal technology. I’m betting those were the real ‘native’ locations before whoever is occupying that new Temple came along. They likely took control of those natives by force and are diverting their limited food production to supply themselves.”
Everyone else nodded or made noises of acknowledgement at that. It wasn’t atypical even for pirate groups to pull that sort of thing on local settlements. It helped keep you off the galactic ‘grid’ if you didn’t have to ship in food, after all. Though the fact they did have a modern facility for at least small shipments…Izuku couldn’t help but ask the obvious.
“How did they even get out here? Even the mapping data Aayla pulled from the Jedi Archives before she distanced herself said this region was basically all lost space after the New Sith Wars. Nor could the League’s intelligence apparatus find us any maps when we had them quietly poke around for something.”
Shaak Ti was the one to answer.
“It might not actually be lost. A few locations, including old Sith worlds like this, aren’t available without specific requests to First Knowledge. It’s entirely possible that they might still know the route, or a possible route. Korriban was deliberately renamed Moraband and then largely ‘misfiled’ on purpose, for example. As a way to limit the number of idiots who thought it was a good idea to go poke something they shouldn’t. Especially young Jedi Knights who think they know everything.”
Zavra snorted at that, some of her humor returning at Shaak’s acid tone. Though Aayla’s own voice was curious as she asked an obvious follow up question.
“How the heck do you know that, then? You were a Knight until fairly recently, and haven’t exactly been back to visit the archives since you were promoted.”
Shaak shrugged, half-waving the question off.
“I was, but I was also one of the few Knights brought in on trying to find the Sith. One of the things that was done early on was send a pair of Masters to Korriban to check on it. There were signs people had visited since the last check, which had been let lapse for longer than anyone realized, but there was no one on planet that they could find at the time. That was…five or six years ago now, I think?”
Well, that certainly made sense. Only an idiot wouldn’t check the old Sith homeworld for activity when the Sith Order mysteriously popped up again. It had likely been one of the first things they thought to check. It also, however, tickled the back of Izuku’s mind. It only took a moment or two for him to connect what was bothering him and blurt it out.
“Then they really might not know where Dromund Kaas is…the compound at the edge of the Marshland is new, but the Dark Temple isn’t. No way they wouldn’t spot this if they also checked Dromund Kaas at the same time they checked Korriban.”
All three of the girls frowned, then nodded almost as one. Aayla was the one to speak up in reply.
“That checks out. It also means there’s an important question to ask, though. Namely, do we try to quietly raid this place ourselves? Or are we going to have to bring in the Jedi Order? They don’t have the amplifying crystals that made Beldorion so dangerous, and if we land away from the Temple and under stealth, we could potentially sneak in. If the Sith are here in numbers, though…”
They each fell silent, expressions flickering as they each worked through the possibilities. Zavra was the one that brought up the most relevant point quickly.
“How many Jedi are good enough at Force Cloak not to be detected coming in? Whatever these people are up to, the Veil was actively hiding them. The last thing we want is to warn them and have them flush any useful trail, even if this doesn’t prove to be the main base of operations for the current Sith Order. Which, given what you told us you saw on Dxun, Master, doesn’t seem very likely,”
Izuku frowned at that, running back over everything he’d gotten from his vision of Bane’s life. Sighing as he did, he saw Aayla and Shaak Ti had already come to the same conclusion he was reaching.
“Even from here it is obvious there’s more than one Force user down there. They haven’t been overly subtle in using it. Which means, unless there are only two and we caught both of them present, this isn’t likely the Banite Sith at all. At the same time, it doesn’t seem likely to be fallen Jedi, either. A third group entirely?”
Shaak Ti’s normally serene expression looked like she’d bitten into something sour as she answered both their questions.
“It’s entirely possible, Izuku. This is a lost Sith world, one we haven’t been checking on since the end of the New Sith Wars. Though with the modern facilities also present, it’s still possible they know something. As for Zavra’s question about Jedi and Force Cloak…not many. I, myself, only brushed up on hiding my presence with it after I was read in on the Sith threat, and Aayla still had to help me refine it on our route in. Tholme, the Dark Woman, a few Sentinels here and there. Force Cloak isn’t a common discipline any longer. Trying to assemble a strike team the size we did for Tisht would be nearly impossible.”
There was a moment of silence as they all processed those statements, then Aayla sighed.
“I’d say that means we need to check with our own resources. Better question, perhaps. Is this worth recalling Celeste? This is her area of expertise and still might be related to the overall hunt for the Sith.”
Izuku was quick to shake his head in the negative.
“No. She said she has a serious lead, in her last communication. As much as I’d like to have her here, waiting isn’t a good idea on either this or whatever her lead is. I’d say our best bet is to handle this ourselves…after we sneak out system and wait for a task force that can raze the place if things go badly enough wrong. Once we lead a few Volitions and an interdictor nearby, we can try sneaking in and finding out what we can. Best case, it’s something we can handle on our own. Second best case, it isn’t but we can pull out to get help. Interdict the planet and organize another major assault like on Tisht. Worst case, we die horribly and the Volitions do their best to raze everything and interdict the planet until someone else can check the ruins.”
Debate went on for a few more minutes after Izuku outlined the plan, but none of them protested the basic premise. At least none of them had pointed out that he really shouldn’t be risking himself like this. As far as he was concerned, getting the chance to stab someone who deserved it would be great for his mental health when he had to go back to the whole ‘ruling’ thing…
… … …
– Coruscant - 24.3 BBY –
Darth Sidious scowled in irritation at the report he’d gotten back from Dathomir. The Dark Side had warned him of a disruption to the future by some group of meddlers or other. Something that would stab at an important piece on the board. Even with the Veil, the Dark Side had been frustratingly vague on what the threat was, however. He’d sent his best, what few were aware of his dual identities, including Kinman Doriana and Sly Moore, on trying to find out what the threat could be. Kinman had pulled through again for him by discovering that the League had quietly built their own Force Academy. His agents hadn’t been able to find its location just yet, but Sidious had been sure that it was the threat he’d sensed. Bad enough the Jedi were dispersing somewhat, but an entirely new Force faction with serious support would derail many of his long-term plans.
An investigation through the Dark Side had revealed that many of the future attendees of this upstart academy would originate with the Witches of Dathomir. A nuisance, but one he could strike at immediately by manipulating the Nightsisters. He had few enough uses for the fools anyway, and Talzin had become a problem with Maul’s death. Promising her a way off world if she killed the leaders of the other clans was easy. It’s not like it wouldn’t be easier to kill the stupid bitch once she lifted off, away from Dathomir and the power it gave her.
With the information he’d provided her from use of the Veil to peer into the future, that her targets were gathering to discuss some sort of alliance, she should have been able to wipe them out. Yet, something, someone he could barely even sense, had diverted much of the damage of the strike. Whoever it was had a damnably good Force Cloak, to hide even from his own powers enhanced by the Veil, and they’d prevented the planned decapitation strike.
No matter. The clans would be busy fighting the Nightsisters now regardless. That would divert them until he could arrange assets to simply bombard them out of existence. Nodding to himself as he felt the threat to his plans lessen, he shifted gears to focus on the League itself. They were proving irritatingly good at counter-intelligence, which was going to make finding this ‘Academy’ of theirs annoying. Perhaps he’d just hint to the Jedi about its existence and let the meddling fools find it for him? Phrased carefully, the more reactionary members of their Council of Fools would undoubtedly launch an inquisition against any such institution…
… … …
– Dromund System – 24.2 BBY –
It had taken a week and a half, after retreating somewhat from the system, to get all the pieces in place. A pair of Volition-class cruisers, fresh from repair slips after a previous battle, had been quietly directed their way. With those ships, one of which was actually the Knight Errant, on station and ready to jump in if the worst should happen, the girls and Izuku had snuck back into the Dromund Kaas system. They’d taken the slow, cautious approach, even with the Toru II’s stealth systems, gliding in under total emissions control and using minimal power for descent. They’d ultimately landed within the marsh itself, leaning into an old smuggler’s trick by finding a spot deep enough to near-totally submerge the unnamed Toru II they were using. The ship was designed for the possibility, and more than powerful enough to push its way back out of the muck once they were ready to leave.
Every single one of them were grateful for their armor once they got out of the ship. True to his thoughts on Dxun, Izuku had gotten both Shaak Ti and Zavra fitted with variants of the ‘Bunny-Armor’ that used phrik as the main material, instead of just phrik plating. Of course, at this point, despite still being quite attractive looking, you wouldn’t know it had started life as a ‘Bunny Girl’ themed joke. Mei had gone over the design with multiple passes, improving it each time, and Aayla had swapped to the current iteration as well, much to Izuku’s annoyance.
He understood why, he really did, even if he hated her switching to its lesser protection compared to her previous full hardsuit. The partial-coverage armor that focused on vital areas instead of his own full-coverage design was both lighter and sacrificed less agility. Nor were the areas not covered in proper armor plate even all that vulnerable, with the bodyglove that went under their suits an armored variant that could stand up to vibroblades and at least grazing hits from most small arms. It wouldn’t turn a direct hit with a crew served weapon like the plates would, nor would it do anything at all against a lightsaber blade, but all four women that now owned one of the armors sets used high-agility combat styles.
Technically, Izuku did too, but his had always been a more reactive style, developed in self defense against his mentor’s hyper-aggressive combat style. Combined with the way he used his shields, he was far more of a ‘tank’ than any of the girls were. For them, speed and agility were safety, so the lighter/more flexible armor was a better fit. Thankfully, after multiple design iterations of increasing seriousness, it really was good armor, and included the ability to be sealed with helmets. If you did so, it became EV-Vacuum rated for up to three hours, complete with its own compressed oxygen supply and air scrubbers. Much worse than the three days that Izuku’s own armor was rated for, but still potentially lifesaving.
More critically, at the moment, was the fact that it kept the funk and dubious chemical makeup of this Darkside-infused swamp on the other side of an armor layer from them. Which was deeply appreciated by all of them as they stuck to ‘ground’ travel, so as not to show up on any sensors the Dark Temple might have. There was enough metal, and more than enough lifeforms, sunk in the marsh for them to not be easily detected. The same wouldn’t be true of emissions if they used flight packs, speeders, or other means of speeding up their travel. Likewise, they were sticking entirely to mental communication, something they’d gotten good at as they’d attempted to reproduce Izuku and Aayla’s Force Bond. Without full success so far, unfortunately. But it was more than enough to let them communicate mind to mind, even under Force Cloak.
‘Coming up on where solid ground starts. If they’ve got a proper sensor net anywhere, it will be here.’
Three acknowledgements were sent Aayla’s way. She and Zavra were, by far, their best infiltration experts. Aayla, however, was both more used to working as part of a team and more up to date on various technologies from the modern galaxy. As such, the rest of them had easily agreed that she would guide them in on the Dark Temple. Not that they weren’t all keeping their eyes peeled, looking for anything that could spot them or trip them up, but it was Aayla that was guiding their sneaking approach.
A mental nudge from her a minute or two later had them all pausing, hidden in various bits of foliage, as she carefully examined the area in front of them. They couldn’t risk anything more than the most passive of Force usage, since their enemies might well be alert for any Force use that wasn’t their own. Which left just mundane infiltration skills and the passive sensors in her amor for Aayla to lean on. Thankfully, it appeared that was more than enough.
‘There’s a simple detection grid, but it’s old as kriff and not even powered on. It likely returned so many false positives from the local wildlife that they turned it off in annoyance. I imagine they expected they’d feel anyone coming from a long way off, anyway.’
More than one of them nodded at that. It tended to be a common hubris among Force users. You’d think that, knowing how hard both droids and certain Force-blank species were to detect, the smarter ones would know better. At least according to both Aayla and Zavra, though, that wasn’t the case. Arrogance and laziness working together apparently tended to make even experienced Jedi neglect more mundane means of security, and Force Cloak was so rare that most never considered the issue of needing to deal with someone that could use it.
‘Hold here, I’m moving forward to make sure there’s nothing farther in.’
Possessing themselves of patience, the group waited for Aayla to sneak a bit farther forward and check again. The pattern repeated twice more until Aayla had reached the actual walls of the Dark Temple. Signaling it was safe and she’d detected no more sensors, the rest of them were quicker to move to join her. This close and now bunched up together, Izuku chose to stop risking even the tiny chance of their telepathy being detected by speaking aloud.
“Well, we’ve made it this far, but the question is how to go farther. They didn’t exactly build their imposing ‘Fortress of Doom and Darkness’ with convenient windows for sneaking through.”
The dry delivery of the overly dramatic name got snorts from Aayla and Zavra, and an amused twitch of the lips from Shaak Ti. It was Zavra that proposed the solution a moment later, though.
“No windows, no. But places like this? They always have hidden escape tunnels. Probably one each for every paranoid Dark Sider who’s ever lived here, and this close I can tell there’s at least a half dozen such Dark Siders here right now, with there likely having been a lot more historically. Give me a bit of time and I can find us a way in.”
That…probably checked out, honestly. More to the point, Zavra would know, given she’d served one such Dark Sider and served with quite a few more. Her familiarity with the Dark Side was likely why she could still detect anything, for that matter, while the rest of them were feeling a bit blinded by the Dark Side Nexus here. Even Izuku was mostly blind here, the Force so corrupted that touching it was revolting. No seeing a better option, he nodded approval of the plan, with Aayla and Shaak Ti quickly doing the same.
Perking up and practically sneak-skipping, which she somehow made a thing, Zavra began flitting from shadow to shadow, looking for something only she knew. True to her word, it only took her a quarter hour, with the rest of them following more slowly and carefully behind her, to find a secret passage. A tiny amount of Force use had to be risked to trigger the mechanism that released the door from the outside, it having been an escape tunnel, not an entrance. Once they did, and disabled some low-tech traps inside, they found themselves in a cramped passage obviously leading deep into the Temple. Zavra nodded in satisfaction.
“Classic Sith. It’ll likely lead right to their bedroom or office, too. You have no idea how many times I assassinated some idiot that built something like this. They never seem to believe anyone else will ever learn about their super-secret passages and use them to get in, instead of them using it to escape.”
Amused as they rest of them were by her color commentary, they all did their best to remain serious as they moved deeper into the structure. It was a seriousness that was, unfortunately, rendered easy to maintain as they’d long-since all realized they were stepping deeper and deeper into a full-blown Dark Side nexus. Even Force Cloak might not be enough to hide them completely, if someone connected enough to that nexus was paying attention. Their tension rose by the minute as a result, as they snuck through the escape tunnel.
Thankfully, despite their fears, they apparently remained undetected…and even had the good fortune to come out into a dusty bedroom. Apparently, the escape tunnel Zavra had found had been an older one, possibly with an owner that was now long dead. Successfully having gotten within the Temple itself, they began to carefully and cautiously scout out the area. This far into the Nexus, the feeling of the Dark Siders that had been clear from orbit was…muddled, at best. Which made avoiding them while looking for information problematic.
They managed a few rooms, which gave them a small amount of information. A religious text they secured, mentions of someone named Darth Millennial, and murals depicting some figure and a quotation about the Rule of the Strong. It was Shaak Ti who tisked at that, apparently recognizing the figure.
“Skere Kaan. He founded the Brotherhood of Darkness near the end of the New Sith Wars. That might prove this place isn’t connected to Bane, as Kaan would have been one of the Sith Lords Bane directly betrayed into destruction at Ruusan, according to your vision from Dxun, Izuku.”
That brought frowns to all of their faces, as one of their worst-case scenarios was realized. It was Aayla who spoke it aloud.
“Kark. That means there really are at least two groups of Sith mucking about. Just how badly blinded to the truth has the Jedi Order been, that there have been multiple groups of our greatest enemy screwing around in hiding, building up strength?”
Any response from the others was cut off by the sound of a half-dozen lightsabers snapping to life behind them. They spun, facing the entrance they’d been distracted from, and found six cloaked figures with red blades bared.
“Very blind indeed, Jedi. Even more so to think you could sneak into the sanctum of the Prophets of the Darkside. I admit, your Force Cloaks are exceptional. But not nearly enough to protect your presence here, inside a Nexus of the Dark Side we’ve made our own.”
Izuku, Shaak Ti, and Aayla had reached for their own blades, but didn’t manage to activate them before another Dark Side presence surged. Not from these ‘Prophets,’ but from Zavra. Who smirked even as she sauntered forward, Force energy so dense it was visible to the naked eye swirling in her palm. She threw aside her helmet with her free hand, causing widened eyes among their enemies as they looked upon the face of a pureblood Sith.
“Oh, I knew you knew! I totally sensed it! But, then, you idiots don’t have a lick of skill with Dark Sorcery! You never even noticed when I took control of the Nexus! Now, please be good little doggies and scream for me.”
Dark tendrils of powers struck out from the very walls, spearing five of the Dark Siders through the heart, despite useless attempts to ward them off with lightsabers. The sixth one fared slightly better, shielding himself by wrapping himself in the Dark Side, batting the sixth tendril away…only to cry out in agony as Zavra’s free hand came up and lashed out with Force Lightning he was too distracted to block. The man went down, writhing in agony, until Izuku managed to power through his shock and flick out a blaster pistol and stun him. Zavra, eyes glowing with power, nodded to him.
“Thanks, Master! We can question him later! Now, let me concentrate, these others are already dead, but I will rip what I can from their minds before they are hollowed out by the Nexus! Oh, and don’t worry, I can already tell you that these morons didn’t sound any alarm! We’ll have hours to go through the Temple for information and loot before anyone checks on them~!”
Shuddering at the cheery sing-song voice coming from someone actively channeling a ton of the Dark Side, all three of the others did their best not to shy away from Zavra. Or from the forms of the five ‘Prophets’ whose faces we contorted in silent screams as they were held aloft by the tendrils spearing them. They would definitely be talking about this later. For now, they would trust that their mutual lover had it under control.
It was easy to forget just who had trained Zavra, when she mostly used Light and Neutral abilities, but clearly she hadn’t exactly been innocent of Dark Side use when she’d been the Empress’s Hand. What that meant, exactly, they really probably ought to have been more concerned about before. While deep in enemy territory wasn’t quite the time to bring it up, though. An interrogation for later, once they were out of this place and could talk about it at length…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Allaya shows the effects of being taught primarily by a Jedi Shadow. As for why the attack happened...
A/N 2: ...the Dark Side was trying to warn Sidious about the threat to The Prophets of the Dark Side, but Izuku and Co were too well shielded and protected by Izuku's own odd connection for it to be specific. Therefore, Palpy found A threat and acted on it, but it wasn't the right one.
A/N 3: Don't worry, what they find in the Dark Temple isn't going to be off-screened like the discussion about Bane. They discuss what they find in the current early access chapters...and Izuku finally ends up face-to-face with Yoda as a result, too.