Duel of Redemption

[Brandon Rhea]

As Jhon sat in a shuttle, racing through the perils of the Deep Core so it could reach Coruscant where battle was raging all over the planet, memories conjured by Tyrn Lightell on Tython were coming back to him now. They were memories he had lost from his time in Imperial Space, memories after he saw Ebberla Daw on Ord Mantell but before he mysteriously found himself on Coruscant again. They were thoughts conjured when Tyrn said Andraste had found Jhon again. They were thoughts of the man who Jhon had always believed conjured the deception known as Darth Vitium.

But most of all, they were memories of hatred. Deep, animalistic hatred.

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Many Months Earlier

Alarm klaxons blared throughout the corridors of the Redemption, a Sith warship peacefully sailing through Imperial Space—a peace that was broken with the arrival of an intruder. That intruder’s name was Jhon Cordatus.

In one of the hallways leading to the command deck, muffled screams were heard on the far side of a durasteel wall. Suddenly, violently, a man-sized hole was burst into the metal, and the mangled body of a crewman named Barrel rolled down the corridor, his corpse bloodied and left nearly unrecognizable. With the same intensity, more people, these ones alive, burst through the same metal, though they would surely not survive for long without attention.

Jhon stepped through from the other side, panting, sweat pouring down his brow and onto the red armor of the royal guardsman he had taken it from when he first boarded the Redemption. His lightsaber hung on his belt while he held the staff-blade of the royal guard. All anyone knew right now was that a powerful Force user was tearing through the ship wearing the armor of the Imperial guards. No one could have suspected that Jhon Cordatus was here.

“Tell me where Geist Weiss is,” the gruff voice of the Jedi Master said to the officers on the ground who were screaming in pain. “I know he is here, so you can make this much less painful for you.”

 

[Dmitri]

Geist Weiss was considered a master manipulator, an artist in the ways of illusions. He could trick people into believed orchestrated fables, alter impressions that friends were enemies. Yet it never ceased to amaze him how easily a few little facades could ruin reputations of the many. A Senator supposedly defecting to the Imperium. Jedi killing civilians. An executive ordering a hit on a Senator. Brother against brother. Parent against child.

Perceptions painted the world, and Geist's illusions were his paintbrush. During the raid on the Sage Halls, the Sith had lost, defeat beckoning for the first time during the Third Galactic Civil War. The lightsaber bomb that was meant to level the Sage Halls as it had done to the Jedi's refuge on Coruscant had malfunctioned and failed to detonate; Darth Vires' anger with the manufacturer had resulted in the Hekto's death. Two Sith Lords had been captured. Darth Inanio slain and Darth Tarak had been arrested. But in midst of all the failure, one slight against the Jedi had succeeded in its execution. Aboard the Star Destroyer Redemption, a man who introduced himself as Darth Vitium had proclaimed the prophetic downfall of the forces of Ashla and the lies of its monks, of their despicable discrimination towards the followers of Bogan and inexcusable accusations of Sith involvement in the destruction of the Will of the Force and Coruscanti temple, which the man wrote off as Imperial Knight plots. However, the finishing touch to the story had been the revelation at the end. Darth Vitium had pulled down his hood to show the face of Jhon Cordatus, a man believe dead.

The ploy was simple in understanding. It had less to do with feeding the propaganda about the prejudiced Jedi than it was to show that even a former Grandmaster of the Jedi could fall so far that he became a Sith Lord. Granted, of course, that it was not the real Cordatus. There was a man on that ship named John Cordatus, but he had not relation to the late Grandmaster. Geist, however, was disappointed in the aftermath. The Darth Vitium facade had failed to impact the Galactic Alliance as effectively as he had hoped. There were some, and was straining some tensions, but overall not as successful as a propagandist could have desired.

Geist kept the farce alive. He had Darth Vitium appear a few times. During a skirmish on the space station Valafar Lamartine, he had Vitium appear; however, that cameo had been written off as a delusion, considering the insanity going on there. He continued his puppetry, but it was not the main focus of his work. Rather, he was making up for the error the Imperium's Spymaster Darth Tarak had wrought. The alchemist was investigating where the Galactic Alliance had stashed the Spymaster. His work had led him to narrow down the possibilities to two locations. One was a penal colony labeled as AF-9760X. The other was a maximum security prison on Onderon known as the Green Range. Many of the prisoners at the Green Range were terrorists or captured enemies of the state. There weren't any Force users, except for an insane Muun who believed the Jedi blew up his planet. No, Geist suspected Royston Spektor was instead stored at AF-9760X. He'd send an agent to confirm his suspicions before he notified Darth Abraxas, who had given him the mission after the coronation of the new emperor, Tyrn Lightell.

The reason there had been a need for a coronation was because the former empress had stepped down. To many, the truth was unknown. Speculation whispered in private halls, discussing from grief from the loss of her husband Darth Exodeus or that she was fleeing out of cowardice. Geist Weiss knew the truth, however. After all, the former master of the New Sith Imperium, Empress Andraste, was aboard his ship this very day. She sought out Jhon Cordatus. When Geist had first learned this, he had felt embarrassed and betrayed. He had been told the man was dead, so he should use the man's identity to ruin the Jedi's reputation. Now he was being told conflicting information. What was Andraste playing at? He suspected he was a pawn in a game, one he feared he didn't know all the pieces too. Vengeance was a path taken by many Sith, but rarely had it led to the sacrifice of power to achieve it. Rather, it was generally obtaining power in order the quench the thirst for vengeance.

What had Jhon Cordatus done to cause Andraste to take such desperate measures?

Geist Weiss was curious to the answer to the question. However, he also knew that curiosity killed the cat. He wouldn't dive into that matter with her, especially considering that she was still a superior. He had given her the VIP suite aboard Redemption. While normal hospitality would warrant he give his own room, the VIP suite was more fancy. After all, it was given to prospective Sith in order to entice them with showering of wealth and obedience from servant droids. He had even provided her authority over the ship's commanding officer, Captain Dubbel Barrel. Luckily, she hadn't disrupted his schedule much. Last week he had finally received the Administrator shuttle he had commissioned months earlier while on Father's Dreams where he had encounter Della Frey. Finally, while working on his laboratory on a lightsaber bomb with a gold trimming that shined with fiery pride, he received word from the captain's brother, Roll Barrel, that his shipment for the Administrator's extra parts had arrived. According to him, it was being escorted personally by an Imperial Guardsman.

The last bit of information had hooked his interest's fancy. He wondered why an Imperial Guardsman was coming. There were a few theories. One could be that Darth Vires, worried for his adopted sister Andraste's safety, had sent him. It could have been sent by Abraxas, Emperor Lightell, or any other high official wanting to send a 'friendly' reminder that he was on loose footing after having his satellite hacked by Ubiqtorate agent Lain Derisma, finding Royston Spektor his path to redemption.

As the alchemist removed the core from the first lightsaber bomb to make it inactive for now, he started work on another bomb hilt, this one with a jagged rancor tooth. However, his tinkering was interrupted with the cries of alarms. Snapping his concentration from the hilt, he sensed a disturbance in the Force. Someone was tormenting crew in the lower levels. He cursed his hobby for art. He had been so focused on perfecting the hilt that he had failed to notice an intruder was storming Redemption until it was too late. He grabbed his radio as he flew out of his laboratory as fast as his feet would employ. A communication with Roll revealed that the enemy was the Imperial Guardsman and he was headed for the bridge.

"Stop him!" roared Geist bitterly with anger rarely demonstrated by the illusionist. The Barrels had assumed the bridge was the target, but Geist remembered that the VIP Suite was near the bridge. Likely the enemy was not after the bridge, per se, but the suite nearby. "Don't let the intruder near the empress!" Ex. empress. However, he wasn't in the mood to correct himself.

The alchemist tried to contact Roll Barrel again, but failed to raise him on the radio. All he got were screams. However, he did not need the audio to know such fear was being demonstrated. The horror was echoing through the Force. Whoever this intruder was, he was angry and powerful. Geist suspected it was a high-level Sith assassin. Tyrn Lightell had only just become emperor. He was not Force sensitive, so he relied on the good graces of the Dark Lord of the Sith. The illusionist hypothesized the emperor wanted his competition gone.

Betrayal ruins order and stability, he thought grimly. He had invoked betrayals all the time in the Galactic Alliance and elsewhere, but he worked hard to stop it from happening internally within the Sith. Every time he had caught wind of betrayal, he extinguished it when he could. He had tried to figure out the identity of the illusive Identity. He had Moff Xinn removed from power after letting a terrorist unrestricted freedom that had resulted in a bombing at the Citadel. He killed Darth Oseth after learning the man sought to betray the Imperium. Fearing Lord Azriel may seek revenge and betray him while investigating Hell's Gates, he helped Varek Rayth eliminate the Sith Lord. Learning about rumors that Grand General Lucifel may be soliciting secrets to his brother, the Imperial Knight Lucian Fel, he had used him as a sacrifice to obtain favor from the Mandalorians and frame STROST. Suspecting Snikch Hettoran as a traitor, he arrested the Jawa and had him tried for treason. And recently, he had stopped Moff Montross Vandergruff from detonating a lightsaber bomb at Tyrn Lightell's coronation. And what was the fledgling emperor's response? Apparently to send an assassination to his ship to eliminate his passenger. Geist would not tolerate this betrayal. He would not tolerate this carnage aboard his vessel.

Taking a turbolift, the Sith Master arrived on the same floor that Roll Barrel had last reported in. Dubbel Barrel notified him that the intruder was in the area, though the security cameras were down; it was unknown if the carnage from hostilities had disconnected the line or if intentional on the intruder's part. Regardless, he hurried to find the intruder. However, part of him wished he didn't have to. He was not a combatant. Fighting was not his forte. Many of his fights he had won by using underhand tricks and pre-arranged traps like the eject-able windows at Fallline that had consumed Bianca Novula and Darth Oseth's lives. Unfortunately, there weren't too many Sith on board. Another Sith Master had been assigned to the Redemption, but Eber was currently stranded on Sacul.

Turning a corner, he heard screams and moans of pain, doubly echoed in the Force. While many Sith didn't care for their underlings, Geist still felt pity for the men and women who had come across the intruder's path. As he approached, a new voice joined in the crew's chorus of agony, this solo filled with anger and vehemence. He could barely make out the words. He was turning another corner where he was now able to see the Imperial Guardsman when it became more clear.

"Tell me where Geist Weiss is. I know he is here, so you can make this much less painful for you."

Geist gulped in fear for two reasons, two epiphanies of revelation. The first heralded from the revelation that Andraste was not the target of the intrusion. He was. If Lightell was this man's employer, apparently he felt it was necessary to make Geist pay for failing to prevent Lain Derisma from using his terminal at Grey Temple on Yavin IV to hack the Ubiqtorate server and steal information. However, the alchemist felt that he must have lied to himself. He thought that by capturing Lain Derisma, who now was being interrogated by Mira Albion, he had absolved any fault on his part. Blame shouldn't have even reached him. It didn't matter if his terminal had been used or not, since Lain Derisma could access the server anywhere since she was an Ubiqtorate agent. He wanted to get out of there, but it was too late. He had exposed himself. Within seconds the intruder would realize he had company, a welcomed company indeed.

The second revelation was debatably worse. The voice from the intruder mimicked one the illusionist had employed in the past. To be specific, it was the voice he had used when addressing the Galactic Alliane at Empress Teta. The voice of Darth Vitium. The voice... of Jhon Cordatus.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

There you are.

Jhon grinned as Geist turned from around the corner, at least he assumed it was Geist. It felt like it would be him. Jhon never took the time to find out what the man looked like. Hell, he didn’t even know if the Sith Master was responsible for the Darth Vitium illusion. Jhon simply didn’t care. He had a bloodlust, an uncontrollable rage building inside of him; his destiny was a failure, he couldn’t save Andraste, and now his reputation was destroyed. He had nothing left to live for.

As the seconds slowly ticked by, a surge of energy began to build in the palm of Jhon’s hand. It grew and expanded outward, becoming more powerful as it did; the invisible force was ready to explode at a moment’s notice. Before it could, though, Jhon raised the Imperial saber-staff into the air and threw it towards Geist as hard as he could, aimed directly for the Sith Master’s head. As he did that, he lifted his left hand up and let the energy blast out of his palm, and he watched as both the staff and the surge flew towards his enemy.

 

[Dmitri]

Those eyes. Geist had seen those eyes in many people over the years. The eyes of anger. The eyes of a predator. Those eyes belonged to bounty hunters, criminals, and Sith. Yet, for some reason it sent a shiver down Geist's spine seeing it from a Jedi. Especially this Jedi. He once wondered what Jhon Cordatus had done to make Andraste take desperate measures. Now he wondered what he had done to make Jhon Cordatus take such drastic measures.

He knew the answer to his own question of course. The answer was obvious. Darth Vitium. However, it surprised the alchemist that Cordatus had found out. His dual identity was a secret only the Dark Council knew. Hell, he wasn't even sure if Tyrn Lightell had been debriefed yet. Yet Jhon Cordatus was after him, and there was not many reasons he'd be after him. Scratch that, there were a lot of reasons, but only one that would have a personal impact on the former man of peace.

As Geist reached for his first lightsaber, he sensed energy building up in Cordatus' hand. With anger flowing in the man, Geist couldn't help but wonder what he was planning. Is he really going to use Force Lightning? That technique was Bogan, a corrupting one.

However, Geist's expectations were ruined an interrupted. Before he could even ignite his lightsaber, Cordatus speared his javelin. In panic, Geist flung his body down to the floor; the spear missed him by inches, impaling a monitor down the hall. However, before even his body could hit the metallic tile, the Jedi's surge of energy was unleashed. Rather than a deflective Force Lightning, it turned out to be a powerful Force Push. Unprepared, Geist went flying after the javelin. However, telekinetic attacks were something Geist had experienced in the past on numerous occasions. Rather than try to fight it, he twirled his body as he flew. Using the Force to aid his navigation, he was able to drop and roll on the ground with only bruises.

"I am here, Jhon Cordatus," said Geist, trying to regain his composure and dignity as he stood up. "What do you want?"

This dialogue was meant as a distraction. Deciding to take a page from the Jedi's book, Geist prepared for his own telekinetic trick. However, instead it would be a Force Pull. Standing near the javelin, though more to the side than right behind it, he would try to pull the Jedi into the javelin with strength he could muster. However, he also know his position was a disadvantage too. If the Jedi tried to push him towards the javelin, he'd switch tactics and shoot the javelin towards Cordatus before he could reach it. All the meanwhile he'd charge himself ready for usage of Force Illusions. It would syphon some energy that could be used for his telekinetic strategy, but he needed a plan for further moves. It was a gamble, one he hoped would work.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Jhon felt the tug of Geist’s pull and stumbled forward a few meters, all the while resisting being pulled any further. With one hand out in front, Jhon reached out and telekinetically grabbed Geist, pushing the Sith towards the saber-staff that was now stuck in the wall behind him.

 

[Dmitri]

Geist was impressed by the Jedi's seemingly effortlessness to resist the urge to shoot into the spear. The Jedi seemed to try to reflect this strategy at his Sith foe. However, already prepared, the alchemist was not worried about being impaled. Unfortunately, he still was inaccurately prepared to stop the attack and found himself smacked into the staff's cylinder.

The surprise had led to Geist cutting off the strength he had put into the Force Pull. He realized this immediately, as he recovered from the sting of the bruise, one he could ignore as the strike had not been as hard as it could have been. Taking his lightsaber, ignited, he took a defensive stance.

"I see the Jedi are as rude as ever," taunted Geist. "You can't even answer one little question about why you're here? I'm here and all ears." It was a little Dun Mach, but the alchemist wasn't putting too much effort into it. He was trying to buy time to devise a strategy. He had no illusions that in a hand-to-hand combat with lightsabers he'd lose. After all, this man had been able to hold his ground against Darth Exodeus. Telekinesis was not as effective as he would have hoped. Instead, he decided to stall so he could prepare illusions. Once Cordatus answered, an illusion of Andraste would appear behind Cordatus. It would show up even if he didn't respond. Either way, the Andraste clone would ignite her 'lightsaber', ready for combat. In that time, if Cordatus was distracted enough, the alchemist would unleash a Spear of Midnight Black.