54A/N: This this the third story in the life and times of Darth Avaryss. If you have not read Star Wars: TOR: A New Sith and Star Wars: TOR: Fear and Avarice you may wish to before starting this one, my little Sith's journey began there. Well without any further ado, on to the next story!
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars: The Old Republic: Dark Reflection
Total war! Once again the galaxy trembles as The Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire renew their conflict; the battle for the fate of the Galaxy begins again.
Throughout known space the Jedi Order battles the Dark Lords of the Sith, trying to bring a swift end to the conflict...
There are heroes on both sides, as the war continues to spread.
Over the skies of the Dromund Kaas, the Sith capital, a young Dark Lord returns.
Soon she shall face the challenges that shall reshape her life.
For once the final choice is made…
…all that remains…
…is darkness.
Chapter 1: My Own Worst Enemy
Where were you when the Emperor died?
Darth Avaryss. Dark Lord of the Sith, and head of House Avaryss had been on mission. The needs of war had drawn her and her followers away from the Dromund Kaas.
It was not a mission that she had enjoyed. It had been a matter of punishment, She had been sent to…educate one of the Empire's recent acquisitions, to show them what happened to those that dared oppose the Emperor's will during war time.
She had done what had been asked of her. She had destroyed a monastery, razed the village around it, killed those who had been left behind, and waved the Imperial flag. Though she had arrived too late to chastise the ones who had earned that punishment, the lesson had been taught, the rubble and bodies left behind would serve as an example to all who dared oppose the Empire and its servants.
She could still see the villager's faces, the ones that had been left behind. They had been puzzled by her presence. She did look like how most expected a Lord of the Sith to look.
Some might have even doubted that she was one.
Though her face was hidden behind a battle mask and hood, she could not hide her figure. She was young woman of average height, with an athletic yet curvy body. She wore a skin tight black leather combat suit with a crimson gambeson over it.
Despite the danger they faced, several of the men in the village had watching her, her figure inspiring lustful thoughts, she could sense them through the Force.
She preferred to inspire fear rather than lust, even though both were often close cousins.
Some men feared powerful women, and yet, they still wanted them.
That was their failing, she supposed.
No, she had not been trying to tempt her victims, that had not been her intent.
She was not like her apprentice, Xen. Xen was a beautiful girl and used that to her advantage. Her clothes, the way she moved and talked, it oozed both temptation and sex. Avaryss had never seen the need for that herself. Beauty was fleeting, she knew, power was eternal.
Her mask had hidden her features. She had tried to appear as a vision of power and death. She tried to show no weakness. The only clue that she had limits was the fact that she was missing her left arm. A battle injury that had forced her to wear a cybernetic replacement
That, more than her beauty should have drawn her victims attention, it showed how far she was willing to go for victory, how much she was prepared to sacrifice.
Yet, there were still men among these villagers that looked at her lustfully.
That was their mistake.
Regardless of what they might of thought or desired, the villagers had not been staring at her long. Her firing squad had seen to them, and their neighbors.
She did not bother to watch the execution, there was no need.
She had done her duty.
Now, she simply wanted to get back to her ship.
She had been on a shuttle, returning to her destroyer when she had felt it, a great disturbance in the Force. Though…perhaps the term shockwave was more appropriate, it had no doubt been felt throughout the known galaxy. Soon after, reports began to come in, an attack on Dromund Kaas itself. The skies above the planet alight with laser fire, of a Jedi strike team having made it to the surface.
It was said that the Emperor had been in the Dark Temple. It was rumored that he was finally taking a hand in the war, that he had crafted a spell to destroy the Republic and grant the Sith Empire absolute victory.
Avaryss did not doubt that. The Emperor was over thirteen hundred years old, he was an immortal, invincible, he had been born during the Golden Age of the Sith, he had been recognized by the legendary Dark Lord Marka Ragnos, whose century of iron rule was still talked about over a millennia later.
A lone Jedi Knight had breached the temple's defenses, his allies having slain the Emperor's guards and retainers. How a mere knight could have challenged the Emperor, Avaryss did not know, maybe the Emperor had diverted all of his infinite power to the success of the spell, maybe the Jedi had found him in a vulnerable state.
What happened next should have been impossible. The Jedi emerged from the dark temple, or so it was said, wounded but alive.
The Emperor did not, he sent no word of his survival, and his followers remained silent. No retainer stepped up to assure the people that the Master of them all was still with them, that he had survived the Jedi's cowardly ambush.
The Empire was met with silence.
The Emperor…was no more.
Less than an hour after the attack, the holo-net had been flooded with the image of Satele Shan, the Jedi Grand Master. Master Shan made sure that the entire galaxy knew that the Sith Emperor was no more. That a Jedi that had slain him, a Jedi that was now known as the Battle Master of the Jedi Order, had defeated the Emperor utterly, and destroyed whatever spell he was casting while it had still been in its earliest stages.
It was the greatest defeat the Empire had suffered in almost a millennia, even worse than Naga Sadow's defeat during the so-called Great Hyperspace War, or Darth Malak's defeat at the Battle of the Star Forge.
The Emperor was dead, and now…
…his people were left to their own devices.
Avaryss had not wanted to believe it; she had been born a free citizen of the Empire. She had been taught all her life to love and respect the immortal being that sat on the Sith Throne, her embrace of the dark side had not changed that.
She had not wanted to believe it! She had almost refused to believe it. The crew, especially those who had grown up after the sack of Coruscant, had been left on shock. A few die hard imperials were unwilling to accept it, no matter what they felt through the Force. How could this have happened?
How had the damnable Jedi managed to destroy the Empire's guiding hand? It seemed impossible!
Pain and shock quickly gave way to anger and thoughts of revenge! The Jedi would answer for this sin! The Republic would burn! The Sith Empire would not take this insult lying down!
This is how Avaryss felt, what she desired when she was back aboard her destroyer, safely locked away in her private quarters. She was still a young woman, barely twenty, and the fires and passions of youth made her want to lash out at their hated enemy, make them all pay for this affront.
Yet, something inside her gave her pause, a part of herself that she still tried to deny stood up, emboldened by the news.
Now you know how the Jedi felt when we sacked Coruscant, that voice said, now you understand their pain, their anger.
Is what you are feeling now any less than what they must have felt after that night?
Is your rage any less than what Fenn's was?
Such treasonous thoughts enraged her.
It is not my fault, she thought, not entirely, she had never been able to completely able to separate herself from the light, from the person she had been before she had come to the dark side.
That weakness remained her greatest flaw, her one true enemy.
Despite her best efforts, the light still continued to burn inside her, it was a single glowing ember that she could not put out, a shard that could not be destroyed. It still tried to pull her in, like a flame drawing in a moth. Part of that was her own weakness; the rest was her connection to the Jedi Fenn Shadowstone.
Fenn, she thought with a shudder.
My love.
They had been connected since they were children; the Force had bound her to the boy from Corellia in a very subtle but strong way. They had dreamed about each other for years, since they were toddlers. Now, as adults, she found herself drawn to both him and the light. It was that connection that kept her tethered, kept her from reaching her true potential.
He desired her, they had spent enough time together for her to know that that was true, but at the same time he refused to give into that desire. He continued to cling to his Jedi ideals.
His stubbornness and strength both excited and frustrated her. He would no more give in to the darkness than she would give into the light. It had made their relationship a slow torture over the last year or so…
…that and his insistence to call her by her old name. It was her willingness to accept that she was still Keera Lylos that added to her problems.
It was…yet another weakness.
The shadow of Keera Lylos, the person she had been before becoming Avaryss remained, remained and continued to torment her.
Keera wasn't just a weakness though, she was Avaryss' main weakness, more so than the light or Fenn, and so far…she had been powerless to do anything about it.
She raged against that weakness now. She turned her grief and shock into anger and hate. She lashed out at her own quarters destroying the room in a fit of rage. She hated that she had not been on Dromund Kaas to help. She despised the council for sending her away when Republic Forces had been amassing.
I should have been there!
I should have been able to help!
The world turned red and for a moment she was not thinking she was all madness and grief, the world turned red and she destroyed everything in sight.
She was not sure how long her rage had lasted, but she awoke from it in her destroyed quarters, the sound of her personal communicator chiming.
They had received new orders her captain had informed her.
They were to return at once to Dromund Kaas.
Avaryss' response came back on audio only, she did not want her officers to see her like this, they did not need to see her so disheveled and in pain. She gave the order to return, and then immediately contacted the cleaning droids. It would not do for someone to see her quarters in such a state.
She was a Dark Lord of the Sith after all.
She had to keep up appearances.
She spent the rest of the trip back in deep meditation, trying to focus her power and prepare herself for what came next.
What would the Empire's response be to this outrage?
It would have to be something dramatic of course.
How else could the Empire reclaim their lost prestige?
She found herself thinking about the dark council, what their response would be to this tragedy.
That thought worried her more and more.
As a full Darth, she answered only to the Dark Council and her master, in that order. Her master, Darth Feer might sit on the council, but she did not think for a second that he was interested in preserving the Empire.
No, her master would have saw this as an opportunity, and he was likely not the only one.
The Emperor had died without issue. He had not taken an apprentice or fathered any children. As a result the line of succession was not clear. Add into that the fact that the Emperor had remained silent for so many years, and you had a recipe for disaster.
It was just like the old saying said: Where some see tragedy, a wise person sees opportunity.
There was no doubt in her mind that many eyes were now turning to the Emperor's vacant throne. If the Sith were not mindful, they would find themselves embroiled in a Civil War, not a smart thing since they had resumed open hostilities with both the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order.
Our enemies would welcome a Civil War, she knew...
It would now fall to all loyal Sith to ensure that such a war did not break out.
It fell to people like her.
She had tried to contact Darth Marr, the one council member she could trust. In the last few years, the Lord councilor had been building…a cabal of sorts. They were a group of Sith dedicated to preserving both the Empire and the Sith way of life. The cabal's original goal was to deal with the continuous silence from the Emperor, to make sure that no overly ambitious lords got ideas that jeopardized the Empire's future.
She did not know everyone who had joined them, but…their duty was clear.
The Empire needed to be preserved, no matter the cost.
Now they would need to step up that game. The cabal would need to keep the more ambitious and destructive lords away from the throne. They would need to guide the Empire down a successful road of succession. It hurt to consider such things so soon after the Emperor's death, but they had little choice.
Their rivals would not be sitting idle; even now they were likely scheming and moving.
The cabal could not afford to wait.
Marr had been away from Dromund Kaas when the attack had come. He had been engaging Republic forces on the edges of their empire. Those lords left behind had clearly not been up to the challenge of stopping the Jedi's sneak attack. Not that she was overly surprised; the council had seen much turnover in the last year. Many of the old guard had perished, either through battle or their own failed schemes.
Those losses had left the Empire vulnerable, and now…they had paid a heavy price for that vulnerability.
Angral, Vengean, Baras, Scotia, Thanaton, so many of the veteran Darths had been killed. Angral and Vengean, and Baras had started this war; Angral with his strikes against the Republic, and Vengean and Baras with their plots and schemes. Avaryss had heard of something called Plan Zero, she did not know the details, but the results were plain to see.
The Empire had once again found itself at war.
It was a war they had not been truly ready for. Too much had been lost, Angral had squandered some of their best weapons trying to take revenge for his son, and Baras; he had been the worst of them all!
He had used the chaos of plan Zero to try and declare himself the Voice of the Emperor. He had overreached, and had been punished for it, killed by his own apprentice, now known as the new Emperor's Wrath.
The warmongers were now dead, but their legacy remained, the Empire was left trying to clean up their mess.
The Sith that replaced them were not ready for what came next, defeat and betrayal had befallen the Empire. And now…with the death of the Emperor…they were on their own.
And yet, your master still draws breath, a familiar voice whispered in her ear.
Your cowardice shames us all, Avy, you are unworthy of the name of Darth.
Avaryss growled angrily, that voice…that damned voice!
"Shut up Keera, she snarled.
"You're not helping."
Every time she closed her eyes she could see Keera Lylos grinning at her.
Seeing that face, those blue eyes, that smug smirk…
…It was all Avaryss could do not to scream.
WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?!
WHAT WILL FREE ME FROM THIS MEDDLESOME FARM GIRL!?
Her rage continued to build.
Damn Marr!
If he had been on Dromund Kaas the Republic would not have breached their defenses!
We were supposed to be defending the Empire!
Now the Republic would be twice as dangerous, this victory would embolden them!
A horrible thought occurred to her.
What would happen if the Supreme Chancellor ordered a second attack on Dromund Kaas!
What if they attempted a second Sith holocaust!
The empire had barely survived the first one, and that was because the Emperor had been there to help them, to guide them to safety.
No, she thought…
….NO!
IT CAN'T HAPPEN AGAIN!
She imagined Dromund Kaas burning! She imagined Ziost burning!
She imagined Korriban blasted down to its mantle!
The visions horrified her.
She…she could see Oridanna burning!
The world of her birth was dying!
It was going to die!
Avaryss had thought little of Oridanna in the last five years, except for those few moments when Keera seemed to be so close.
She could almost hear it. The lullaby sung by her mother, and inside it, her words.
Come home, Keera, she needs your help.
Come home!
Avaryss opened her eyes, she was gasping; her heart was pounding in her chest.
She tried to rise from her meditation only to fall back to her knees.
She…she…
She gasped, trying to breathe.
It…it felt like she was having a panic attack!
Come home Keera!
She needs you!
Come home!
She was not sure how much time had passed, how long she had been meditating.
Her communicator was beeping.
The bridge was trying to contact her.
She forced herself to breathe, to be calm.
Panic would not serve her, not now.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
She was weeping child.
She was Darth Avaryss.
She would be damned before she let a few fevered visions break her.
She was a Dark Lord of the Sith!
She would not be stopped.
She used the Force to pull the communicator to her.
"Yes, Captain," she said into it, "What is it?"
"We have reached Dromund Kaas, my lord," the Imperial said.
"Your shuttle is prepped and waiting to take you down to the surface.
Avaryss nodded.
Yes, that is what she needed now.
She needed to see for herself, to see what the Republic and their Jedi lapdogs had done!
She needed to burn those memories into her mind; she would use them to fuel her power, her rage and hate.
This war was not over.
It was just beginning.
"I'm on my way," she said into the communicator.
"Inform the Commander and Colonel Glasc." She said rising to her feet, dusting off her robes and armor.
She needed to be ready.
They needed to be ready
"We are going down to the surface."
IOI
Avaryss boarded the shuttle without a word to anyone.
She would have preferred using her Fury class Interceptor, but that was not possible. The ship was not even aboard the destroyer. Her pilot Thranton Rink had taken it when he went off in search of his Twilek lover.
Avaryss had allowed it, but now wished she hadn't.
A shuttle was not a Fury, with all the chaos down on the surface, who knew.
She had enemies.
What if one decided to remove her from the board?
One by one her crew had left her, drawn away by their own dreams and desires. Rink was somewhere hunting his little Twilek. Lieutenant Commander Holli was currently assisting with a refit to her master's dreadnaught the Terror. Beric Lylos, her elder brother, had rejoined Imperial Special Forces. He had been on Taris again the last time she had heard. HK Sigma 3, her loyal assassin droid was on assignment, she had sent it deal with a Republic businessman who had threatened her interests in Thunn Cyber Systems, she had not heard back from the droid since it had left.
Her apprentices, Xen and Necris were also away, like so many young Sith; they had been deployed by the Dark Council. They had both been Jedi once; their knowledge was invaluable in dealing with their ancient enemy.
Avaryss had understood the need, too many of their order had not had any real battle experience; having two seasoned fighters could make all the difference between victory and defeat. Of course there was another possibility.
Darth Feer, her master, sat on the Dark Council.
He could have used his position to isolate his old apprentice. He might have sought that, to leave her vulnerable.
If that was the case, this summons could be a trap.
Darth Feer was not above such a scheme.
He had never approved of her being made a Darth so early. It was part of the reason why Darth Marr had done it, to distract him, and prevent her master from carrying out his plans.
Her promotion had created a rift between the two. Feer had never really trusted her after that.
And now she faced a council summons. Marr was not here to protect her, or to keep the peace.
Could this all be a mistake?
Could she be walking into a trap?
She didn't want to think so, though she could not deny that she was naked without her loyalists at her side.
You will just need to be careful, the darkness whispered in her head.
You will need…to be mindful.
The shuttle launched without issue.
Avaryss found herself travelling with two of the highest ranking officers in her house.
Strangely enough, that did not put her mind at ease.
Both of these had their own ambitions and plans, they were useful to her, but…
She did not trust them…
They had not earned her trust yet.
"This is shuttle DS-Five to citadel control," she heard her pilot say from the cockpit, "Requesting landing clearance and a berth."
"Shuttle DS-five, this is Citadel control, please state your cargo and destination."
Avaryss frowned when she heard the controller's words.
The young man was trying to keep his voice level, but it did not change what she both heard and could feel.
Fear.
When she reached out with the Force, all of Dromund Kaas was radiating with fear.
It seemed that she was not the only one that was worried about a second Sith holocaust.
She did not blame them for their fear, but she was sickened by it.
We are Sith! We are conquerors.
It is our enemies that should be afraid!
"We are here on business for the Sith Order," her pilot replied, " We have Darth Avaryss on board, she is answering a summons from the Dark Council."
Avaryss' eyes widened in surprise.
Fool, she thought.
If anyone was listening, especially and enemy, they would now know she was here.
If this was a trap, she was now in the perfect position for it to be sprung.
She would need to discuss this with the pilot when they reached their destination. He could just have easily said that he had a Darth on board, or simply flashed her code clearance for the Citadel, but he had not.
She hoped that his mistake would not be her undoing, and even if it was not, he would not likely survive the conversation they would have.
Avaryss did not tolerate fools for long.
There had been a brief pause, perhaps Citadel control had been checking out her orders, maybe even contacting the Dark Council, the members that were here anyway.
"Shuttle DS-Five, please set course two seven one, proceed on that heading, we are transferring you now to a new operator."
Avaryss frown deepened.
They were not going to the Citadel?
This could be either very good, or very bad.
"We are not heading to the Citadel, my lord," the pilot called out to her.
Avaryss sneered.
I have ears soldier, she wanted to say.
I heard what was said.
At her side her two officers regarded her, though different as night and day, they did answer to her, usually.
They were likely as curious as she was.
"This is most irregular," the armored trooper sitting next to her said.
"If the council is on a ship, why summon us all the way back here?"
"Because they are the Dark Council, Bleez," Avaryss replied.
"Even a Darth is bound to obey them."
Commander Bleez was her Warmaster, recruited by Avaryss from one of the most fanatically loyal units in the Imperial army. The Two had met on Corellia, during the Kaggath between Lord Kallig and Darth Thanaton. House Avaryss had stood with Kallig, the former pleasure slave turned dark lord had had access to technology she had desired.
Bleez had also fought for him. The ruthlessness and cunning the trooper had shown that day had impressed Avaryss, despite the fact that Bleez was not Force sensitive.
Her choice of War Master was surprising to some, but only until they had seen the trooper on the battlefield, or listened to the War Master's counsel.
Say what you could about the Bleez, but the soldier did know how to wage a war.
Clad in the armor of a simple trooper, Bleez had led House Avaryss to several victories in the last few months. The decision to wear such plain armor was a bit of an enigma, much like everything else about Bleez. Since joining House Avaryss, the dark lord had never seen Bleez without a helmet; in fact she had never seen Bleez real face.
She had no idea what was under that mask. She could not say if Bleez was human or alien, male or female?
All she knew was that the war master got the job done.
That was all that mattered to Darth Avaryss.
"It is not our place to question the Council, War master," her second companion said.
"They have their reasons."
Avaryss regarded the man sitting across from her, about ten years her senior and clad in the uniform of Imperial Intelligence.
Colonel Henin Glasc was the polar opposite of Bleez. He had not been recruited, but forced on her by her master. Glasc was a loyalty officer, assigned by Darth Feer on behalf of Imperial Intelligence. Avaryss' history of coming up with unorthodox methods of doing things had prompted Colonel Glasc being here.
Handsome in his way, with blond hair and blue eyes, many said that Glasc resembled a young Grand Moff Vaiken, the father of the Imperial navy; alas he had none of the man's courage or ingenuity.
The man was a rabid dog, she thought, her master's attempt to put a leash on her. Normally, a Darth would be free to remove such annoyance, but that was not the case here. Glasc came to her service with powerful friends at his back. His father was a member of the Admiralty, his older brother a high ranking official in the office of logistics. He was also, ironically, a cousin of Darth Feer's wife, the Lady Synestra.
In other words, he was untouchable.
The situation galled her.
Glasc adjusted his cap for the twentieth time; he brushed non-existent dust from his spotless black uniform.
He regarded Avaryss coolly.
"The Council will not be happy with what happened on Asrat, My Lord," he informed her.
"What do you intend to tell them?"
"The mission was a success, colonel," she reminded him, "that is all that needs to be said."
The loyalty officer frowned.
"The Lord Councilors may not feel that way," he reminded her, "You were sent to make an example of the Children Asrat, and yet, you failed, they had escaped before we even arrived."
Avaryss gave him an equally cool look.
The mission had been bad from the start. The Children of Asrat were a holy order, a group of children born under the light of some passing comet, their numbers had been between the age of ten and eight.. When their world had fallen to the Empire, an Imperial officer had gone to them, to demand their submission to the Emperor and the Sith Order.
The children had responded by saying that they would offer no blessing to the Emperor or the Sith. They stated that the Emperor would be denied their love and succor for his outrageous attack on their home.
Their response had been enough to draw the Sith down on their heads. Avaryss had been dispatched to kill them all, to leave their heads on pikes outside the nearest village, as a warning to any who would dare question the Emperor, or seek to deny him anything.
The mission…had sickened her. It was not a legitimate military target, and as for punishing an enemy of the Empire, she did not see the value in killing a bunch of snot-nosed brats.
She had barely been able to think during that mission. Keera had been talking in her head constantly, condemning her for even thinking about killing children.
In the end, she had not needed to.
The Children had already fled by the time the Sith had arrived, taken off world by some smugglers with ties to the Republic.
Avaryss hated to admit it, but she was grateful that they were gone.
She had not looked forward to killing a bunch of children, holy or not.
Though she had slain children in the past, those had not been face to face kills. They had been collateral damage; those lives had been lost in explosions that Avaryss had set. It was not the same of beheading children with her lightsaber.
She was grateful she had not needed to do that.
She was very grateful.
She glared at Glasc.
"Hear me well, Colonel. You will say nothing of this to the council. It was my mission, and I will speak for what happened. If you value your life, you will say nothing when we meet with them, am I clear?"
Glasc sneered at her.
He knew an empty threat when he heard one.
Avaryss did not have the power to simply eliminate him.
He knew that.
"I will do what is best for the Empire, my lord," he promised her.
Avaryss frowned.
That was not the answer she had wanted.
"My lord," Bleez said from the seat next to her, the soldier was pointing.
Avaryss eyes widened as she looked up.
Oh my.
The shuttle was moving in a stationary orbit to the planet, outside the windows the wreckage of many ships floated, some Republic, most Imperial, the result of the holding action the Republic had used when their assassins went down to the surface.
As they stared out the cockpit, space in front of them began to shimmer and shift, light bent as a large space station materialized almost out of nowhere.
Avaryss blinked.
At least now she knew where they were going.
The Emperor's cloaked fortress appeared before them. It was here that the Master of them all had lived in seclusion since the end of the last war.
The young Dark lord had heard of this place, but had never seen it until now.
Why would the council summon me here, she wondered.
What sort of game are they playing?
Both Bleez and Glasc were silent; they also understood how unusual such a summons was.
The Emperor was dead.
Who would have the guts to move into his station so soon after his death?
She did not think that she wanted to know.
Station control hailed them as they finally came into communications range. The shuttle was assigned a landing bay; an honor guard was waiting to escort them to the throne room.
Again Avaryss felt strangely uncomfortable.
The throne room, she wondered, why would we be meeting there?
Shouldn't the throne room be closed off?
Shouldn't this entire station be on lockdown, its staff and guards in mourning?
That is how it should have gone, but things were rarely what they seemed.
Avaryss said nothing as they made their final approach.
Whatever was going on, it was not good.
The Force shifted uncomfortably around her, whatever was going to happen...one thing was for certain.
Her life…was about to change.
A/N: Hello again dear readers; I did not want to keep you waiting. I'm going to try to make Dark Reflection a…darker story than the previous two. A new chapter of Rogue Jedi and the Shyra Viel one shot should be up soon. In the meantime, shoot me a review and tell me what you think of this first chapter, until next time dear readers.
May the Force be with you.
DG
