The Rage of Return

[Taalong Vorr]

There were no sounds of speeders in the valley, at least none to be heard over the vicious sandstorm that blew outside of the temple. The brown and orange dust cut through the air like vicious daggers leaving small abrasions on uncovered flesh. It overtook the valley rendering visibility such that you could see only fifteen feet before ones face, if your eyes were able to avoid being struck by the flying beads.

The guards at the temple still held their post at the doors, sentinels stalwart and true. They were armed with lightsabers and they stood firm in the face of the storm that blew past them, their masks shielding their faces and metal gloves covering their hands. They were among the best warriors that the Sith would boast, but now their writ was to stand as the final line of defense in trying times.

They could see a dark figure approaching, similar to themselves but with robes and armor far more tattered and withered then their own. Not a comment on their ability against the one that marched up, but rather the sign of respect that they had for their own image that the warrior approaching did not. The guards held up hands to stop the Crusader that approached and demanded his business at the temple.

"I am Taalong Vorr, Crusader and Apprentice to Darth Tagus. I am bound to return."

The guards looked at each other, and spoke silently to their helmets.

They made way as the door behind them opened, and Taalong Vorr was granted entry.

The temple was magnificent, seething with dark energy and a monument to the power and oppression which the Sith brought to bare against the galaxy. Vorr did not look upon it as he stepped forward, steadily marching through its halls. He could sense well the direction he must go, the familiar air of the one he sought was rife within the temple itself. He followed that sense until he came to a door, a finely crafted frame and seal upon it.

He opened it himself and stepped inside.

"A Crusader returns from a far." Taalong Vorr spoke. "My Emperor."

@Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Tagus was alerted to a visitor but he did not look up from what he was doing. Standing at a holographic display of the Galaxy as a whole, he looked over the Sith Order and everybody else who laid claim to the Galaxy. Oh the Galactic Alliance and the Republic would Say that they didn't have designs on taking over the Galaxy but everyone said that.

All who gained power were dogged by two simple truths; they sought to gain more power and they sought to keep the power they had no matter what the cost.

More power.

That was something that had been bothering Tagus for some time now and even now it didn't go away. To be honest, he was starting to think that it would never go away. In some odd moments he considered the idea that there was no further power to be gained that could assist him in his goals - and he ignored those moments as best he could.

There had to be a way.

He growled in anger at the intrusion before turning to address Taalong.

"Ah. My former apprentice returns." He stared at the other Sith through tainted yellow eyes, a side effect that was now permanent due to his diving into the Dark Side even more than before, "I trust you bring a valid reason for your absence."

@Morse

 

[Taalong Vorr]

There was an anger in Tagus, one that was somewhat uncharacteristic of the even tempered Sith that Vorr had known. There was a malice that was there, matched for many things, but not the least of which was clearly Taalong Vorr himself. He had been gone for a long time, completely without contact. Of course there could have been any number of reasons for that, but it was not impossible to lie. Not because the truth would be brought out of him, but because Vorr was a terrible liar. It was a habit of gentrified Sith, of which he was not. He spoke only the facts of the galaxy as they were before him, and had no interest in the smoke screens that were put up.

Vorr remained in place, his own eyes glaring with a disobedient contempt. The fact that Tagus was Emperor at all was in many ways a part of the back biting and scheming which Vorr hated about the Sith. He was promised to fight for the most powerful tribe in the galaxy, and all over the galaxy they were being pushed back.

"The wars."

Taalong Vorr's travels were many, and his allies were ever few. He had personally stood upon dozens of battlefields, and more and more they turned out the same way.

"Battling Mandolorians, the Alliance, Rebels, Pirates, Brigands, Smugglers, and Jedi."

Vorr had done battle against them all in the time since he had vanished from service to Darth Tagus, and yet he had not heard of his doing anything other then climbing from one high chair to the next. If it was the strategy that he held in his mind, then the strategy was failing, and Vorr's assumption was that he could not see the enemy for what it was.

"And I report to you now... The Wars do not go well."

In his mind he wondered if Darth Tagus was to blame for any of the disaster that was the virtual capitulation of the Empire. Perhaps here he would get his answer.

@Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Oh his little apprentice was angry.

Angry at him.

Hated him, perhaps, even. How odd it was that the crusader who abandoned his post seemed to find it acceptable to hate the man who had stayed through the thick and the thin. Through the invasion that had brought the last Good Emperor low and the depths that the Empress had sunk to.

To leave him - the Last Emperor. The man who had never wanted the throne but taken it to ensure that the petty and the weak could not take it. It was poison to whomsoever sat upon it and Tagus had taken that poison into himself. He had taken that poison and it was burning him alive from the inside but what did he care?

"The wars... do not go well... hmm."

Tagus grinned.

His teeth were yellowing and his lips cracked open at the unfamiliar motion. Blood began to drip down from his lips as he stared at Taalong for a moment.

"I know." he waved a hand in front of him, "I'm the one who had to pick up the pieces. After a Good Emperor died to some nobodies from unknown space and after the last Empress went mad and burned her lover before glassing a planet in her rage and grief. I. Was. Here."

He laughed.

It sounded off slightly.

"While you ran around from battlefield to battlefield accomplishing nothing - I held together what little semblance of the Sith remained. So... are you going to kneel before your Emperor and Master?" His grin turned into a snarl, "Or are you here because you think you could do better."

@Morse

 

[Taalong Vorr]

The Crusader stared up at the one who he would call Emperor, and saw in the Sith the burdens of ruling. Yet that burden seemed different then it had in others, in particular other Sith rulers he had come to know. The death of his predecessors had thrown the Empire it perpetual chaos, leaving the difficulties of keeping it together strained as soldiers had to be divided behind continuing campaigns, enforcing Imperial rule, and keeping safe those of value. On all fronts the once mighty Imperial Troopers were failing. More and more known and named Sith were dead or captured by the day. Forays from the rim to the core were utter folly. And the Empire itself was all but surrendered.

Surrendered by Darth Tagus.

The one whom Taalong Vorr had once sworn to call master.

The last Sith that would be called Emperor, for the Empire was a known lost entity. It now existed in a more archaic state, which Taalong Vorr could hardly begin to comprehend. He was warrior, enticed to be a Sith by being a part of the greatest power in the galaxy. And that power was failing.

"I was there when Emperor died, as well." Taalong Vorr spoke, a tone of stern defiance breaching his mask. "Another battlefield no different then a thousand before and after, it where nothing was gained... and once again I was left behind."

Vorr identified what may have been a twinge of madness in the face of Darth Tagus, a condition Taalong Vorr could not understand. His barbaric ways were not unhinged and uncontrolled that he lost sight of himself. Yet the Sith before him appeared to be doing just that in a way.

"For my purpose... I am yet undecided." Taalong Vorr stood his ground. "The Empire is capitulating, the Sith are now made prey, and I hear no more campaigns of reclamation." Vorr's assessment was not wrong. "What is the purpose is a Crusader without a Crusade?"

Though he spoke those words, he meant them well, and was here to stand. For Taalong Vorr had come to the Sith well into his years. He had spawned children and had wives. His life was well lived, and he had lived it all the way he did at that moment. With determination of his own action.

@Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

Oh the hate and the resentment was palpable in Taalong. Such a shame that it was so... impotent. The warrior who fought battle after battle and tasted defeat after defeat and decided that it couldn't possibly be his fault so it must instead be the fault of someone else. And like so many disgruntled people before him, Taalong had decided to blame his leaders.

Why?

Because anything else would be a blow to his pride. Accepting his own failings? Pride. Accepting his enemies had been stronger than him on the day? Pride.

"Oh what a pathetic broken mess you are, Vorr." he sneered and seemingly dismissed the other Sith, "Are your strength and your pride so brittle you cannot adjust to change when it is the only way to continue?"

He waved his left hand and gave a bark of laughter.

"Perhaps you would want to do battle on a planet that cares not for you, yours or anything else you bring and instead will aid your enemy in the fight?" he shrugged, "The Empire was a burden to the Sith. It was a weakness, a large body to which our enemies could plunge their dagger into from literally any direction and hit home, while we lack the dedicated manpower to protect such a bloated carcass."

Tagus grinned.

"The crusade remains as it always has, Vorr; to use the Dark Side to harm our enemies for every slight and every transgression." he reminded the Crusader, "The war is not done because the Empire is gone. Because this is not a war - this is genocide. Either we kill them or they kill us, those are the terms we have agreed upon and I would have NO OTHER TERMS!"

Suddenly shouting, lightning crackled across his gauntlet.

"Now EVERYONE fights like their back is against the wall. Now there is no more "buffer worlds" between them and the Mandalorian threat - the threat is in their homes, it is in their Temples and it is in their faces." He tilted his head to the side slightly, "So you tell me, Vorr... what you intend to do."

@Morse

 

[Taalong Vorr]

While perhaps touched by the burden of a madness that the Sith could not visualize, it was clear that Darth Tagus had not lost entire control of his senses. Perhaps his composure and sensibilities, but not his senses altogether, which was the most important. Though his words were in a way a heresy themselves, even to his own status, and most certainly carrying a boundless offense to Taalong Vorr himself, they did ring true on many fronts. And Vorr was not such that he would strike out at rationality. Cowardice perhaps, but not rationality.

Vorr's eyes narrowed.

This had been an unexpected shift in the tone of Darth Tagus. He seemed quite different then he had before. Perhaps he was more reserved in days before as he bided his time, or perhaps the real threat of an enemy coming to his door to consume he and all he was was truly motivating him. Whatever the case it was something that Vorr could understand far better then the back biting and dealing of the past, the form of the Sith which he loathed above all else.

"I would seek an answer."

Vorr's grip tightened, his clawed fingers gritting against each other sharply, as a predator bristling towards prey. He would not dare strike. The Sith sorcery of Darth Tagus exceeded his power immensely, and he would singe him to a crisp before he got within a yard.

But here he did not wish to. For upon all points, Taalong Vorr agreed.

"Where must I go to break our enemy." Vorr's question did not sound thus, but he continued. "I have no skill in building temples or shoring defenses. No talent for oratory, nor sorcery. I am Warrior of the Sith, and a Crusader that will war where his Emperor bids!"

Vorr drew his lightsaber, ignited the Crimson Blade, which singed the air and dust within it. He swung it to face downward towards the ground, and held it just above the floor of the temple in a display of control and composure.

"I intend your will upon those that would deny it." Vorr spoke.

"Master."

@Nefieslab

 

[Darth Tagus]

And so it seemed that his old apprentice was no longer going to be challenging his rule; for now at least.

They both knew that this was likely temporary as it was the way of the Sith, the way of the Dark Side, to continuously challenge those above you. Half of the problem that Tagus had with being the leader of the Sith was that the buck stopped with him. Everyone within the Order and everyone outside of it wished him dead.

Of course they were welcome to try.

If a Sith were to kill him and try and take his place? Well he would be the one with the last laugh he would say. After all, this was hardly a role that someone would covet. His was no longer a role of decadence and enjoyment as it would have been in the past. Past rulers had pissed all of that away until all that was left was the role that Tagus inhabited now.

"I will send you some instructions on some targets for you to strike at." he confirmed for Taalong with a short nod, "You will have your war, Taalong, of that you can be sure."

Doubtless the war would come to him.

"Leave me now, my Apprentice, and carry out my instructions." he flashed a grin, "For the good of the Sith."

@Morse