sand stone sun and two sith

[Hark]

Korriban, the tragedy.
Awash in sand skittering like a scarab, a scabbard for the darkness within, a scab planet picked and peeled. The wind blowing out a billion candles for the birthday of the red canyon rocks, rocks, rocks canyons rocks. Smashed sun smeared around in pumpkinorange with a pinky and thumb, a five-sith-old’s fingerpainted modernist masterpiece he dubbed, “Ski”. Great ergs to east and west, horizon slashed out from ski and erg with carving knife, laughing jack-o-lantern.
Korriban, the comedy? Tragicomedy.

Where was her apprentice? Falling behind, it appeared. Ashley Summers, The Turqoise Twilek, wore a cotton red robe, red and bluish clash making her seem like a yummy strawblueberry Twilek tart in this parched-tongue textured desert. Hiking with a backpack on her back, leather sandals on her feet, two black greasemarks under her eyes to reflect the sun’s glare… she stopped and looked back. Really, where was he? She’d wait a minute.

The wind blew back her robe against her sweatstained skin, robe spreading apart in a narrow V on her chest and ^ below her thighs. Ashley grunted and lifted herself astride a dolphinsmooth oilblack boulder jutting up, head tentacles aflail. They’d been hiking through the Korriban wilderness for hours, halfway to their destination. Nothing but sand sky stones and a setting sun for kilometers around. She was carrying all their water, so if Darex got lost she hoped he could use some darkside power to squeeze it from the ground (but Korriban bleeds only blood).

“Daaarrecksssssssssssssssssssssss… “, she called over a dune, sss’s like a snake hissing into a whistle. “You weren’t eaten by a sssssarlacc were you?”

She took out a bottle from the pack and started sipping its cool water, sloshing it around in her mouth. Ms. Summers would only wait so long.

 

[Vilado]

Darex had been summoned. From his vast galactic trek he had found nothing. No artifacts, no power. He felt failure for the first time, and it stung. He visited multiple planets encountered dozens of unique beings and gained valuable experience but to a Sith those things could only get you so far.

And so he had been summoned. Apparently a Master had been found for the abandoned Acolyte. He remembered his previous trainer, the beautiful Darth Verum, who disappeared after the Acolyte's saber quest. A red twilek she had been covered in black tattoos, he shivered just thinking about her . The lightning blasts for failure, the relentless training. It had honed Darex. His training had almost been complete. He had learned Ataru and even built his own lightsaber, under the guidance of Darth Malgus. The gatekeeper of the holocron had been more of a teacher than Verum. He trained Darex in most of his skills, he shaped the boy into a merciless man.

Now came his third teacher, if you counted the artificial Malgus. She was also a Twilek but her power was significantly less than the previous two. Although Darex still recognized her to be leagues ahead of him. She was to complete his training. She was to create a crusader from an Acolyte. Darex was already a tempered blade, now he just needed to be finished.

The training had commenced with a trek on Korriban, the haven to Sith for centuries. The walk was easy and any endurance the young male lacked he called for from the Dark Side. Ever present and ready for use the fount of dark power reaided inside him. It penetrated his very being and often the Acolyte simply lost himself in it, bathing in its dark power. He was Sith, the Darkness was his weapon.

He heard the irritating banshee wail from far down the cliff. He had stopped to admire a corpse and must have gotten left behind. Darex sighed at being called like a common mongrel. They had only just met, yet Darex had envisioned her death ten times over.

"Coming, Mistress!" He screamed up the path. He knew some used Mistress as a term of respect and that it also was a synonym for lover. He meant both. Darex knew she was powerful but she seemed different. Not as serious, he assumed maybe she would ignore his jests which would become flirts if left unchecked. Maybe before he killed her he could bed her.

He sped up the path and saw the blue woman garbed in her red outfit. It was highly seductive and Darex knew anyone would only wear something like it if they wanted to be looked at, so he did. He took in her beautiful form and absolute perfection. He prefered humans but she would do.

"I come at your call, my dark master." He bowed his head and took the opportunity to take in her legs. "I apologize for my absence. Although I must be insane, for what could be more worthy of my attention than such a beautiful specimen such as yourself." Darex was not lying and he hoped the beautiful Sith could sense it.

 

[Hark]

Ms. Summers spat to the side on hearing Darex address her, spit melting into the sand on contact. But when he appeared, she answered him with a smile that’d usher summer from dead winter, shaking the half-full bottle.
Slsh shshhh sushhlhshlh.
Ashley held up a finger toward Darex and curled ‘come here’ with it.

“You want some?”

She tossed the water bottle onto the tanning sand in front of her boulder. Several drips spat onto the ground and stayed there, the ground sucking them up slowly. “Drink up.”

She looked up and saw starved bony-ribbed clouds all butting heads with each other. “Tell me Darecks, what do you see when you look at me?”

 

[Vilado]

Darex grabbed the bottle and drank deeply. The question was not hateful but the man knew a lesson approached. He kept his guard up, if Verum had taught him anything it was that a Sith never became comfortable with others. The Twilek could lash out at any moment, he needed to be ready.

"I see power incarnate. I see a Sith woman capable of great destruction. I see my master, great and wise. I see beauty unparalleled by any. I see you, my Lord."

He hoped the constant brownnosing would ensure his Master's dismissal. Once she underestimated him then he could begin his plotting. For what Acolyte did not dream of his Master's death? Verum's life was taken by another, Malgus was already dead, this woman would provide the kill he desired.

 

[Hark]

“R-Really?” She looked at him with soft eyes virgin to any jaundiced-yellow darkside, big wet eyes that seemed never scratched by a single speck of dirty sand.

“When I look at you..." Monarch butterflies aflutter in her stomach... "I see a fool.” Wings stabbed and pinned by steak knife eyes. She pointed at his feet.

Darex had allowed himself to be distracted, absorbed even, by Ashley and had ignored his surroundings. He’d walked right into a trap. Throughout his false flattering, his feet had been sinking into the ground like a souffle. Quicksand!

What, How, Darex might think. The key detail: not noticing how the ground had sucked the water droplets from the bottle so slowly into its skin, implying an already damp earth. And every desert has its dampness, whether through underground springs, short rains, a patch of shade... Genius Chemist Mother Nature mixing sand, silt, water together in the right proportions made this hardly surprising to encounter over enough kilometers. Another key detail: Darex too captured by Ashley’s beauty, or too confident in his own intelligence and ‘master plan’— like a 13-year-old crushing over their English Teacher, writing her a love letter in order to get a better grade— to immediately notice his predicament. The stupid question ‘what do you see’ obviously a red herring to further distract him. Precious moments had been wasted talking. The quicksand should have engulfed his feet and be just reaching his lower ankles by now.

“When I look at these clouds, I don’t care how… don’t, and I mean, don’t move anymore— you’d need enough strength to lift several speeders just to move your feet a millimeter… mmmm don’t care how beautiful they look, the clouds. I see what is inside them. I see their potential. I… see the storm.”

Ashley gave another lemon-wedge smile, one to turn sweet Summer to failing Fall, Darex falling faster if he flailed. If her apprentice wanted to dance with his masters, show up in suit and tie and mask like in some Sith Prom or Masquerade Ball and then slice them up later, Scream-style, well, that was his prerogative. But he wouldn’t do it to Ms. Summers. Not to Queen Ashley. Everyone puts on an act, a mask, but Ashley wears the mask of the Peacock. Perhaps now she will wear the Masque of the Red (Robed) Death, pretend it’s Halloween. You best bare your sharpest fangs when you tango with the Queen.

Darex was sinking, sinking, sinking, ankle to knee.

“And a summer storm is coming.”

She entertained the idea of leaving him there, a sacrifice to Dark Lady Korriban. Maybe Darex would be sucked through the core and spat out the other side of the planet, emerge a slobbering sandman-giant put down by some future acolytes in a training mission? Oh Queen Ashley, you must curve these morbid predilections. Who will play the jesters in your court of fools?

“Too bad you were too enthralled by me to notice that the water drops didn’t absorb into the ground right away. This is a desert, dear. You should’ve noticed how moist that patch of sand was instead of imagining how moist my... oh my Darex... Darecks, Dereks, Derricks, whatever shall I do with you?” Spoken like the angel eye of the hurricane judging some lusting sinner before it drowns him in the floods of a New Age. Darex: Captain of the SS Sith going down with his ship into the seas of sand. Thigh to waist he sank, and then he stopped. One can only sink so far in quicksand it seems.

“You see this rock I’m riding? You’ve force choked people before haven’t you? It’s a perfect balance of push and pull… and I pray you know what those are. Tell meeee, ever choked a boulder?”

Smooth as a dolphin and big as a whale was that boulder Ashley sat on before Darex, boulder 15 feet away from the apprentice, might as well have been 15 leagues in his predicament.

“The force is your rope, the boulder your wild steed.” She pitched her wrist around and up to the sky like she’d lasso those bullish clouds themselves down to drape her in their mists.

That was the only hint she’d give him: one hint for one missed detail, and even that may have been too much, too easy. Without his gear and his legs useless, only the force could save him. At this stage of training, you would either think your way out using the force or Korriban would chew you out.

 

[Vilado]

Darex cursed himself as the word fool left her mouth and The Force shouted a warning to him. Before he could act on it his feet were ankle deep in quicksand.

He'd underestimated the beautiful enchantress. He was indeed a fool to toss the lessons he had learned aside. Beauty did not mean weakness. He did not struggle as the sand swallowed his thighs, he simply listened to her preach. His anger, fury and hatred building as she callously lectured her apprentice.

He could strike her, channel his hate into a burst of lightning or a push strong enough to torpedo her across the desert. He was sure she could defend against it but at least it would shut her up. He listened as he plotted.

She told him not to move and the Acolyte complied. She told him that even harmless clouds could become something dangerous. So was his first lesson learned from Lady Summer. Do not underestimate anything or anyone.

His body stopped sinking at his wait. He was trapped, his saber was under the sand. The Sith hinted at using the Force to rip himself from the sand. Darex had already been gathering his strength since his feet first entered the sand. His mind raced and he analyzed her suggestion, lasso the boulder and use it to pull himself out. A good plan if ever there was one.

Darex channeled his hatred, his malice his fury. Using these emotions he willed the Force to heed his command. He grabbed the massive boulder with his mind, he held out a clawed talon to help him visualize. His power was not enough to move it but now that he had ahold of something he could use it to pull himself out.

He pulled at the boulder but it did not budge, he did. He pulled more and more and with each pull his body slithered out of the sand.

This was not working. As much as he pulled the sand simply pulled back. He became infuriated and lashed out with the Force at the sand. It made an indent but the action have him an idea. Picturing a drill he willed the Force to spin and drive into the ground. The sand have way and as the air spun the sand was clicked away. He let the energy go and the sand filled the space he had excavated.

Time for a larger demonstration. He summounded forth his unbridled hatred and a glance at his Master's smug face put him over the edge. He called the Force and willed a ring of air around him to spin. As the air spun quickly he forced it into the sand where it began to drill. The quicksand gave way and as the spinning air drilled ever downwards he extended it keeping some up by his waist.

As the air reached his feet he felt the pressure from the removed. On the other side of the tornado the sand raged violently to reclaim it's hole. Once his feet were freed he leapt out of the trap and released his hold on the air. The sand collapsed onto the hole and the air trapped underneath had created an even deadlier hazard.

Turning to his Master he knelt down. He nurtured his hate for her, but she was a powerful Sith. She had earned his respect and he recognized she had much to teach. "I am at your command ,my Lady." No longer a sexual object, she was now his mentor.

 

[Hark]

Every failed attempt to escape was hilarity. She doubled over in bat laughter. Head tentacles jiggling like a fishing line of Christmas tree ball ornaments.

“Well, somehow it seems you’ve passed the first test. Your environment, my sapling, can be a friend or enemy, not just the person in front of you.”

Ashley dismounted from the boulder and on they continued.

The light was fading. The sun was setting. She always ten paces ahead of him. He following her from behind. That was how it was for an hour. The master ahead of the apprentice as the apple tree stands above the fallen apple.

“Tell me about yourself, Darex. Why did you join the Sith? What must your parents think?”

How hard had Darex worked to craft a decent story for himself? What gnarled creatures whispered in his ear at night? Ashley had seen this backstabbing scene before, knew how it all played out. She was a very savvy woman.

Ashley knew if Darex wanted to strike her now, this was the time. In fact, she was counting on it. She had felt his hatred from before, his undisguised urge to killkill, as bloody and unabashed as a raw steak. She felt it, and she was unafraid. Sometimes one had to send a message. Let Darex try to kill her with her back turned. Let him try. If he didn't strike now with an advantage what did it say about his confidence? Would he ever be able to challenge her again without a necklace of anchored doubt hanging on him? And if he didn’t, then quiet the rage, bumbling bumblebee, while the Queen Bee teaches him how to dance the bee dance.

 

[Vilado]

The hate had died down but the resentment stood. As every Sith should, he hated his Master. She walked ahead, as confident as ever. He wanted to strike her but her knowledge was too valuable to waste. Until he eclipsed her he would guard the twilek Sith with his life.

"I was raised in a mining colony to a pair of wealthy oafs. They raised me but I quickly surpassed them. They sent me here once I discovered my sensitivity, I plan to kill them one day."

He wanted to also say, and you, but he needed to control himself. He let his emotions calm and felt the dark pool inside of him become stagnant. It was a sick thing, to be calm but he must else he strike the twilek. He was still aware, of his surroundings, of the Sith, of everything.

"What of you, my Lady. What is your story?"

 

[Hark]

Day was turning to night. Reds to purples to blues. Longhorn clouds piled on one another, working themselves into one big knot. Ashley's tentacles jiggled a little at the question. She kicked up a little bit more sand with each step. She was glad the sandals were tight fitting, or she'd have blisters.

"I used to be a nobody, like you, sounds like. But then I was rescued, or actually... chosen. I was chosen by lightning itself."

The taste of the air changed with a rushing wind. Wet and humid, relief from the heat. From the north, a mountain range of black capped clouds was rolling in. Heat lightning flickered far above them, a fistful of fireflies.

"What parents would willfully give away their child to the dark side? There must be a very successful Sith public relations campaign on your world."

 

[Vilado]

"Indeed except it was a mining colony on an asteroid not a planet. My parent's cared only for appearances. The offering of their Force Sensitive son brought them protection and reputation. Of course I wanted to go. Unlimited power and a laser sword? Who wouldn't want that. They will pay though, as of now their mining operation pays no tax and is protected by the Empire. A time wil come when they fall from favor, I just hope I'm there to rip apart everything they love."

The weather had been changing quickly. Darex loved lightning and he was anticipating the crackling. Although being chosen by lightning sounded amazing he wasn't too sure it was all to benifical.

"Have you any family or have you slaughtered the lot?" Darex knew most Sith killed their family to prevent any leverage from an enemy. The Jedi also forbade any attachment, strange how they were similar in that aspect.

The calm was breaking, Darex hated keeping his emotion segregated from the Force. He decided to let them go and the Dark Side surged through him, he basked in the power. It was so easy he hardly had to concentrate, it was as if the Force was offering itself to him. It was his servant, ever ready to be used.

His will controlled his mind though, he'd lost himself in rage only once before and it had cost him. Darex was not a hulking brute, he couldn't become enraged and smash through walls. He was small and quick, he needed to keep a cool head to overcome his opponents, using his hate and rage to instead empower himself.

 

[Hark]

Ashley didn’t reciprocate Darex’s force-ki powerup. One needed to conserve energy while in the desert, not waste it on unnecessary displays of aggression like some animal. The slim arcs her legs made while walking were shrift and graceful, energy-saving, head tentacles draped over her shoulder seesawing back and forth to the pendulum of her own heart. And what a tale it had to tell. But not to him. Not to anyone but herself did she keep her treasure.

“Killing my parents… at this point would hurt my story. A bit like picking fruits that never ripened. My parents stay small and stunted in my life.”

They now walked through a graveyard of femurs and tibias, and someone, likely a funny sith thinking themselves cutesy clever, had once arranged 20-some bones in a makeshift teepee. Now the damn thing lay collapsed, probably after the first strong wind, into a sunken pyramid of petrified bone. Ashley wondered if the Korriban temples themselves would someday fall in such a manner.

“A famous holo-playwright once said,” and here Ashley gazed up at the congregation of clouds, trying to peer through them to see a truer more vivid world.

“All the world's a stage,”
“And all the men and women merely players:”
“They have their exits and their entrances;”
“And one man in his time plays many parts.”

She didn’t think he’d understand what she meant, and so maybe she was saying this for the rocks and sand itself, as they could echo back her words to another passing traveler someday if the man refused them. The sky was deepening from prunish purple to an ocean deep blue-black. It was nearly time for the next test.

“Think about that, and what part you truly want to play with us, the Sith.”

 

[Vilado]

The words sounded odd as Darex trudged on behind the Sith. Many parts to play? He analyzed the quote on his head a couple times, it sounded eerily Jedi-like. He was reminded of an encounter on Tatooine, when a Jed Master had been spitting his light side nonsense.

Think about his part within the Sith? Since his first day Darex had wished to become powerful. He wished to wreak havoc on the innocent. The innocent were nothing more than inexperienced whelps. Darex had claimed innocence once. Before being given to the Sith. In his naivety he had expected to be rescueded. He wanted the tales of passing star ship captains to ring true, for a Jedi Knight to bust in and save the terrified youth.

That was a long time ago, he learned that you can rely on no one. Not Jedi, not parents and certainly not Sith. He wanted the galaxy to feel as he did. Enlightened, corrupt. Innocence was an obstacle to true freedom. It blinded you, deceived you. That would be his part to play. His "role." The destruction of innocence.

The revelation came with a gasp. He had no direction before, no long term goal. Now he had one, he would be a merciful Lord. He would rob the galaxy of its naive ways. He would force the truth upon them. Fear. Death. He would show the universe what these were, show them the truth.

"I know my part, my Lord. I know my ambition. My goal." He was amazed that he had never come to a conclusion such as this. Maybe it was Korriban, the Dark nexus washed away any obstacles in his mind. He was free to think clearly under it's sinister presence.

 

[Hark]

The sun had sunk to vast depths in the squidblack sky-ocean. No light but some smudges from the stars. They had walked and walked but no cliffcut temple or bloodsoaked tent, no place of rest came into view. Was Ashley really sure of where they were going? The moundish ergs to the east and west transitioned to sliced off humps of dune. Wiping her chapped lips, she put back into her pack a water bottle she had just drunk from.

Now was the time for the Acolyte’s second test. She kept walking, but started rolling her wrists around each other in circles. A breeze blew by.

“You could die out here, remember. Your bones used someday for the picket fence of some savage’s home. All it would take is to lose sight of me for a moment. One lost, little, boy.”

On the word boy, she flung around and in a bowler’s motions, rolled her ball of Force-fueled wind toward Darex. Like a snowball, it picked up momentum and energy as it invisibly glided over the sand, a sandball. Currents manipulated by Ashley’s Force, wind whooshing strong enough to roll 200 tumbleweeds. The ghosts saw it but only the living felt it. Whirlwinds engulfed Darex and heaved sand all around him, in his face and in his clothes.

A distraction. When the winds died, Jake would find Ashley nowhere in sight. Ashley had bolted in a sprint sped up by the force to Darex's left side and then changed directions, abruptly changing directions again and again in the first few minutes thereafter, cloaked by night. East, West? North, South? Flown to outerspace, maybe tunneled through the planet’s core? Darex wouldn’t know, his five senses being of no use. And so here is where that sixth sense had to come into play. Force Sense. But a honed Force Sense, homing in on his runaway Master. Too easy to sense and find a lone Sith among a barren landscape? Try this, thought Ashley.

Torches lit up across the desert. A dozen plus two of them, varying between 50-500 yards from Darex on all sides in a circle around him, birthday candles on a dry pancake. The ones who held the torches? Other Sith recruited in her plan. Their presence in the force would confuse Darex, her force signature obscured and mixed with the signatures of these others, who had previously cloaked their presence. Force breadcrumbs lying over breadcrumbs. Four or five of the torch-holding Sith were even moving in long arcs, trying to walk circles around Darex that’d take hours to complete, some speed-walking, some slow.

Ashley held none of these torches. She had slowed and was slinking away in the shadows between the lights, slithering almost like a snake on the sand, slowly very slowly, in the right direction of their ultimate destination, South, South East, almost the opposite direction they’d been walking for the past hour- a further deception to confuse the Acolyte. Between a few torches she might pass, but unnoticeably and imperceptibly to the naked eye. If Darex didn’t latch onto her presence using the force, then locate her direction and catch up soon, he’d just be lost in the desert… lost without food or water… or friend. For if he approached too closely to the torch-holders, they had orders to attack on sight and without mercy.

Untrained Sith would have as much success finding their Master in this dark, force-cluttered mess as they would taking out a dowsing rod and plunging it into the sand. Darex would need to do several things to distinguish his Master’s force signature from among the imposters. It was doing something very specific, very unlike the rest.

If he were to succeed and locate the direction of his Master, find her after a few more kilometer’s hike, he’d find Ashley perched, waiting on a maroon igneous boulder, overlooking their next destination.

 

[Vilado]

Darex had been pondering his revelation. Innocence was a lie. He was planning and plotting, he half heard the teacher yell boy and his senses flared as the Force shifted. He attempted a backward handspring but as he came up he knew it was futile. The sand would ripe into him even if he had flown into the air. As he landed he braced himself, he commanded the Force to protect him. It did,albeit poorly. Most of the sand rebounded off the invisible sphere but some slipped in and scratched him. The pain made him angry and the anger strengthened the shield.

The entire sequence had ended in seconds and as the barker faded he called his saberstaff to his hand. The twin red blades ignited but there was no enemy to fight. Darex closed his eyes to search for his Master's dark presence but as he did the sounds of torches being lit flared around him. For a nanosecond he had sensed only one, heading to his right. Then suddenly there were more.

He cursed and decided to run to run in the direction of the lone signature he had sensed. That direction had many dark auras but one was moving, and not in a circle. Rapidly changing directions he knew it to be her.

He sat down and opened himself to the Dark Side,his frustration fueled his connection and his Sense was augmented as a result. He watches her slink and slide, very slowly, to the South. She must really think him a fool. The torch bearers either stood still or moved in varying degrees of speed, but none slithered like this. It was as if she was asking for attention.

He had followed her for a while,he avoided the Sith who carried the beacons. The more strength he could conserve, the better. His thirst had begun to become unbearable but the Dark Side sustained him.

A short while later she had stopped. Darex followed closely and as he reached the location he grabbed his saber. It would be a waste to kill her, so full of knowledge, but he would defend his life to the death. He strode up to the rock, hilt in hand, and addressed her.

"A wonderful distraction my Lord." It was mocking but he had proved himself. He deserved to gloat, at least a little bit.

 

[Hark]

Ashley finished off the bottle of water. The last one? She turned it upside down so the last few drops hit the rock, wriggling down into its pores and gone forever.

“Delicious.” She chucked the bottle at his feet, burping loudly.

She waved over her rock onto the landscape it overlooked. A vast valley lay before them. Giant tombs and sphinx-like statues rose like jagged teeth out of the rancor’s mouth.

“Welcome to the Valley of the Darklords. Let its power quench your thirst.”

Thunder burst from the clouds like an applause from dead Sith Lords banging on their caskets. Yet no rain.

 

[Vilado]

The Valley was immense, the Dark Side gathered here like a great lake. The insane monuments were amazing to behold and the Valley itself was amazingly well preserved. Darex knew not what to think. He simply basked in the power of the ancient Dark Lords using its power to replenish himself.

"It is amazing my lord. Surely there are untold secrets and knowledge buried here." The power hungry man had to force himself to stop. He would let his Master say what she would, then proceed.

 

[Hark]

Ashley looked like she was about to say something, but changed her mind. She’d let the Acolyte make up whatever stories in his head he wanted to about the valley. Allow him to think there was nothing but treasure and power for those who followed the blackest desires of their hearts here. Such giddiness might be awarded by an early death if he were not aware.

“If you’re so confident,” she stood up and looked him straight in the eyes, “lead the way.”

This would not be a simple descent. From their angle, the flat plateau of sand on which they stood dropped off into a sheer cliff marking a side of the valley, cliff forming a 110 degree angle with the bottom. Lightning lashed from one erg to another in the distance, leaping over the desert and striking the tops of several giant terracotta totempoles that towered fierce and unshakable.

“Climb down in whatever manner tickles your fancy.”

The boy seemed so daring. Too daring. And so Ashley thought she had identified Darex’s weakness, his lust for power, leading to overconfidence in his own abilities. In many ways this was the weakness of all Sith, blessing and a curse. She then looked to the sky and sniffed the air. A little humid, but not quite enough for rain. More thunder trumpeted and welcomed them. Lightning struck about. Would it storm?

 

[Vilado]

"As you wish, Master."

Darex ran at top speed calling to the Force to augment his body. As he reached the ledge he dove off. The ground approached rapidly but Darex twisted in the air and landed on his hands. As he did this he pushed of his hands and landed on his feet. The incline was used as an advantage as gravity brought him downward, he flipped again and again.

As he approached the bottom he lespt into the air and labdd on the floor of the valley with a tumble. He then stood, panting but triumphant. His thirst was becoming a nusanve but he used his will to suppress it and regained his strength with the Force.

 

[Hark]

She watched as Darex flipped down, analyzing his movements. She walked to the edge of the boulder overlooking the valley and tried to see the mark his crash landing had made, feeling his position with the force regardless. She would not descend yet.

“I might’ve forgotten to mention the bugs…” she hollered down the cliffside. Her voice echoed off the walls and carried around the valley.

Pelko Bugs. Bug like creatures that attacked people from beneath the sand. They were force sensitive and used it to hunt their prey. They would try to swarm Darex and paralyze him with millions of microscopic poisonous barbs. Already they were gathering beneath the sands on all his sides, shifting lumps beneath the sands. Suddenly, a bunch of them sprang up from behind Darex and hurled themselves at his back, barbs sharp and ready. A moment later, another group would attack in the same way at his left side.

 

[Vilado]

He had recovered his breath but as his Master called to him he realized he was in trouble. His stunt had blinded him, he was surrounded. His saber flew to his hands and the red blades sprang to life. Moments later a horde of insects leapt from the ground behind him. He mastered his fear and bent it to his will, it fueled him.

Darex spun and his blade collided withe the head of the swarm, killing a bunch. He continued his saber spin using it like a grinder into which the insects readily threw themselves. It was difficult but he had created a saber barrier, but as the last of them died he sensed a renewed assault on a different front.

He summoned forth his anger and thrust his hand out. The blast of kinetic energy smashed into the swarm, he held the energy and the bugs thudded against it like rain on a window. This was quickly becoming too much for the Acolyte as he sensed another horde amassing behind him.

"Master, I'm running out of tricks here!"

Sith did not beg for help but a update on his status was different. Whether or not she chose to intervene Darex would fight until his body failed him, and after that he would fight some more.

The swarm had erupted like a volcano and Darex cart wheeled out of the way. The bugs collided with the other swarm Darex had been holding off and amassed into a much larger horde.The bugs had sat swarming upon eachother. Darex had a few precious moments before they realized what was happening and attacked again.

Facing the enemy, Darex harnessed his fatigue, anger and fear of death and used them to replenish himself. The Force flowed into him and he channeled it and all of his other emotions, willing power to his hands. He had used Force Lightning few times but it would have to be more than a blast, it would take everything he had.

Darex closed his eyes and felt the lightning cackle on his hands. Pure energy, anger and hate incarnate. Harnessing all of his energy , physical and Force, he put his hands out and let it go just as the swarm leapt forward. The lightning flew from his hands as he fell to one knee. He opened his eyes and dread filled him, the traveling bolt was bigger and stronger than any he had produced but it was no match for the countless horde of bugs.

He felt his body failing, he had exaughsted himself. The bolt had traveled half the distance as Darex's eyes fluttered. He was going to black out and the insects would feast. Just as he thought this a huge bolt of lighting flew from the sky and struck his bolt. The tiny missile transformed, fueled by the power of a thousand suns it became so much more.

The mega bolt struck the swarm and ravaged it. The head of the horde were annihilated but the rest were killed by the continued energy that the sky poured into them. Hopping from one to the another the tiny crackles of energy multipled and the entire swarm was heated to an unbearable temperature.

Cooking within their skeletons they finally exploded, spreading their guts all over. He had killed the entire swarm. He sensed no more enemies as his eyes shut and his body shut down. His last thought before sweet sleep took him was of satisfaction.