Dorin
J8, Expansion Regions
Free World’s Alliance Territory
Theme
Shortly after the defeat on Yavin IV…
“You have honour in you, warrior. Leave here and make sure you remain true to yourself. That your actions are those of your own. Of your own volition and choice. Not at the whims of others. Because you have courage in your heart and an undying resolve, even if you do not see it so easily,”
Madness was an ever consuming influence in Bir’s life. Ever since those final moments of freedom, the moments before he would be forced down the steps that would lead him into darkness, his life had been in an eternal turmoil. Success eluded him at every turn and instead he was met with the heated palm of failure, almost as though it was his lot in this life; to constantly be overturned, stepped on and over by those less deserving.
He hated the Sith for what they had put him through. For the year that he remained their prisoner, burned and beaten beneath the sands of Korriban. For the treatment he received at the hands of both superiors and peers alike, a constant joke within their ranks. Bir Vuul, the madman. The fool. Instead of offering him aid in his moments of need, those he called allies and friends would rather see him kicked to the ground and writhing in pain and anguish.
And yet he found himself unable to forgive the Jedi for simply abandoning him. That day, in the skies above Ryloth when his Master was taken from him along with his freedom, would forever be a blight upon the Order who had once taken him from the only true family he had ever had. He was simply forgotten, left to die. They didn’t even remember him now, after all these years. He was a ghost, of course he was.
Alone in a cavern on his homeworld, Bir had withdrawn to collect his thoughts on where his life had led. He did not search out the family he had been stolen away from nor did he track down the Baran Do monks for guidance or insight. This was something that needed to be settled alone, with only his closest friend.
”Why must things always fall apart?! Why, my friend, why?!” the Kel Dor hollered with frustration, a fist of metal and wires slamming down into a puddle that had formed. As the surface tension of the water settled and he glared down into his reflection, Bir saw a sight he had not witnessed in years. Here, on his homeworld, he was free of the mask and goggles that were required for him in other systems. Here, in this dark cave with only just enough light for him to make out his features, he saw the face of the man he knew so long ago once more. ”Aziz! Dead! Dead!” he continued to holler. ”Artorigas! Gone! My dearest friend, murdered! And the Eternal! Captured! Defeated! Unmasked! Gone, gone, gone!”
”And now perhaps you see what I’ve tried to explain for so long?" The voice, unheard by anything that may have shared this space with their newest guest, echoed within the confines of Bir’s mind. Looking upon his reflection, he could see the change. His skin, darker, healthier and yet almost glowing. Gone were the sunken pits around his dark and beady eyes but rather a look of energy and rejuvenation he knew not the source of. What he saw was not himself, but rather who he could have been. ”The fact that it has not been us executed is nothing short of a miracle,”
”Me?!” In another fit of rage, Bir snapped to his feet and paced away from his reflection. He couldn’t look upon him, how could he? ”Perhaps if you’d simply let go! Yes! Yes! Your… your influence! Your words in the back of my head! Quiet at first… So, so quiet,” With a twitch of his neck, a single clenched eye, fingers twisting together at his chest as he paced at an increasingly hurried rate, one would detect how volatile the Kel Dor was in this moment. ”Until you get louder and louder and louder until I can’t hear anything but you!!” The final words dripped with venom and malice as his left arm shot outward, colliding with the small stack of supplies he had managed to lug with him to his new ‘home’. Within, a small mirror he had packed for purposes beyond vanity shattered to the floor and within those pieces, his reflection once more.
”You blame me? Of course you do,” his alter ego replied softly as he glanced downwards. Long ago, after his mind had split, the two were so often at odds. Fighting constantly for control, only for his old self to be beaten back at near every opportunity. Yet he continued to grow, despite not being fed by his new Master. He had become wise. Patient. Forgiving. Everything the man he was now never could be. ”Perhaps, for once, the answers to your plights are not seeking something within that can be quelled or dominated by sheer force. Perhaps it is time for you to look… outward,”
”Oh, what do you know? You’re nothing! Nothing but a figment of my imagination! A meaningless voice! A toy of the mind! Yes, yes! Less than nothing!” Falling to the seat of his tattered trousers at the side of the shattered mirror, Bir continued to seethe as his mind mulled over his recent defeats.
”Right. Of course,” the reflection chuckled. ”Simply a figment of your imagination. Never before had this body we share been my own. It’s simply ludicrous for me to even think as much,”
”It is!” he hollered, his voice echoing within the chamber, cracking slightly from the sheer volume of emotions rumbling beneath the surface.
”So what’s next for the great Bir Vuul, hm? We… stay here, cool down, eventually re-emerge and join in with the next great expansion of the Sith Empire, hm? Is that it?” the voice continued smugly. ”Continue searching for that next notch in our belt, the approval from those who surround us who want nothing more than to put as much distance between us and them as they possibly can? All in the name of glory? Sounds reasonable…”
”Silence! Silence! I need silence!” Bir hollered, his frustrations boiling over. Once again his coiled fist lashed out, metal striking the rocky cavern floor with such force that small cracks were created around the point of impact. Yet suddenly, a wave of curiosity. ”There is nothing else! Nothing! There will be no greater honour than to serve our Empress!”
”The Empress? The woman who slaughtered nearly every close ally she had without so much as a thought? Surely you must recognize that serving her does not serve… you… any better than it did Caelestis. Any better than it did Stolas. Or the Acolyte of Xeno? Ordered to be executed on a moments notice, though even I have to say that wasn’t much of a surprise,”
”What is the point you’re trying to make, hm? Out with it! Out!”
”Well, maybe it’s time to look to someone wiser than you or I. You see, a wise Jedi once told us…”