Steam billowed softly off the cup of coffee on her desk; her first of the day. She’d yet to take a sip; didn’t dare, since taking the first sip of coffee meant that she was preparing to face the day. She did not want to do that. Not just yet.

The morning was so peaceful. Outside her house, the birds were waking. A few minutes ago, she had cursed the sound, but now, running a towel through her hair, it was very serene and peaceful…

While part of her was still contemplating sliding back into bed, she knew by the light in the room that it was long past time to wake up.

She opened the screen of her tablet computer, then plugged in the holonet access cable. She unplugged it each night; otherwise she would constantly be woken by emergency updates that, eleven times out of ten, could wait until she’d gotten some bloody sleep.

Sure enough, the first thing that popped up were several notices of communications she had missed.

The first one was from Logan. Joren Logan was a tactician with The New Alliance, a group of rebels who had yet to realize that The New Republic was actually functioning. The New Alliance was a more… rogue, so to speak, application of the lightside, and she found herself butting heads with Logan, though she usually distanced herself from any direct confrontation.

Logan had sent her an update on the threat posed by Chadd Fearsons and The Rogue Empire.

That was a tricky one; The Rogue Empire did betray The New Order at the Battle Of Dantooine, but since then, had more or less gone back to their old tricks. A horrible humanitarian and civil rights record coupled with their leader’s tendency to grandiose statements, threats, and building of superweapons.

She shrugged the update off; if Logan wanted to kill Fearsons, she would not shed a tear for him.

There was a rumor that Fearsons was an accomplished Shadow Jedi Master. Of course, if one believed in rumors, one would likely not put much stock in the rumor that a Jedi existed who could perilously balance himself between the light and the dark to find the true power that existed at the center of the balance of the force…

It was hard enough picking a side and sticking to it. Trying to balance both sides… impossible.

Of course, if the rumors were true and he did wield that kind of power… he was even more dangerous.

Then all the better should Logan bring forces to bear against him; if not destroyed, he would likely be weakened, and she was sure that The New Republic military could mop up whatever was left.

Which brought her to the next piece of mail; Hiram Drayson.

With Admiral (among other things) Ekan having formally left the Republic sometime ago, the Republic leadership in the military had been very fractured. Hiram Drayson, a retired Republic intelligence officer, had been asking if he could take the reigns, and assume the leadership of the military to help organize the defense of Coruscant and the other Republic planets.

In principle, it was not a bad offer; an experienced Republic officer volunteering to take command of the fleet. But he was an experienced retired Republic officer, and the word retired was key; there was something she didn’t like about reactivating and promoting an officer directly to the top of the chain of command. Plus, there was something about Drayson she just found… unnerving.

She filed that report aside to consider later.

The next piece of mail was Viryn Quell’s latest rant and she discarded it out of hand.

The next mail was from Joren again and it was asking her about Fearsons again. Supposedly a group known as the Iron Fist Empire was amassing with the… she read a bunch of political updates and tuned it all out.

Apparently war was coming to Chandrilla.

She could live with that. She smiled softly and took a sip of her coffee; the first of the day. She would flip on the news soon and watch how things were unfolding. She did not have much hope for the alliance against Chadd Fearsons for his military was large and well trained, and most of the forces mustered against him were from relatively new governments. Nevertheless, she could still watch and wait…

She considered turning it on now but noticed she still had two messages in her queue. She opened the next one and almost dropped her coffee.

It was from Gash Jiren.





Your interference comes of benevolence, but it is no different. This way, neither of us will prevent the wishes of the other; both of us will benefit. – Searthen Jiren





Those had been the last words that Gash had spoken to her.

Gash’s defection had rocked The Jedi Order; many of the more experienced members of The Order had followed him. His ways were… idealistic, and rash, but she could see the benefit of proactivity… it was just not a stance that she could support.

Amalia had stayed with her… and The Order had survived, but, it was no doubt diminished… the way of The Rogue was the path of action, and younger padawans followed the path that saw them head directly for the fight. It was the… sexier, in a way… Jedi Order. What appeal did peace have against proactive application of justice?

Her philosophical differences aside, that Gash had left in such a way… hurt her.

She wouldn’t admit it on the surface… there was a weakness inherent in a woman admitting to emotional or even simple admirational connection… but nonetheless, she had admired Gash. He was strong, and resolved, to overcome the things that he had done before. He seemed to be a genuinely good, moral person…

What he had said that day had been a judgment on her leadership and methodology. On her failures.

Her failures.

She didn’t like to admit them, but they were there.

On that day, though, the failure of The Jedi Order had been about her.

Her interference. Her intentions. It was about her.

Gash Jiren did not just philosophically disagree with The Jedi Code, he disagreed with her.

And he left. And others left with him. They, too, disagreed with her.

She was not a petty person but to say she had been unaffected by such defections would be a lie. Every student of The Order she felt attached to… a friendship, a bond… a mutual trust. All of that cast aside.

That had left its mark.

And yet… here it was. A message from Gash Jiren. It sat there, ominously, unopened.

What did it say? What did he want?

There was only one way to find out.

She glanced down at her coffee and found herself wishing that it was more than just cream and sugar inside.

She moved her finger, slowly, to the button. The chirping of the birds, at that point, long forgotten.

The message opened. It was plain text only.

“Leia,

Hey. Been a while.

I know you so I know by instinct you’ve skipped over Viryn Quell’s latest manifesto. I think you should open it and give it some thought. I know it made me think.

Either way, all my love,

Gash.”

She leaned back in her seat. The familiar sarcasm of informal Gash Jiren was there alright. It was how he talked to his friends… which meant that, even after everything, Gash Jiren considered her a friend. All their philosophical differences aside, Gash still respected her.

That was interesting in and of itself.

The recommendation of Quell’s message was as well.

Normally, Gash didn’t have a taste for Quell… “a self interested hack who couldn’t get hired by VNN if all their janitors suddenly walked off the job”, he had once remarked… finding him in general to be a stool and a popularist who hid behind pretending to antagonize. “A faux intellectual make believe rebel” were his exact words…

And here he was recommending the old hack.

What was in that message must be very interesting indeed.

She took a long sip of her coffee, once again lamenting the lack of… flavour… but settled back into her chair nonetheless. She scrolled back her messages, and with only a momentary consideration of not opening it, pushed the button to open the message and put it on her screen. Then she leaned back and watched.

“To what depths can a man fall and still find the surface of the water?

How far can someone go down an unlit path and still hope to find the light?

Can a person do something so horrible, so atrocious, that there can be no redemption?

Good and evil are not absolute values. One does not simply put the word Darth behind his name and decide that he will be evil. Being evil is not about representation but about action. One makes choices, and if those choices hurt others, if those choices are malicious and selfish, if those choices are needlessly destructive, one slowly gravitates towards evil.

The reverse is also true. Actions taken of a selfless nature, that help and heal damage done, that save lives and protect people, gravitate one towards positive, good karma.

You live and you die by making choices. In the end, you are those choices. You are the actions you undertake. You are more than broken promises and empty words. You are what you do.

But how much is too much?

Is it possible for someone to be so evil, so… barbaric… so removed from humanity it is possible to consider them utterly unredeemable?

Are there people that are not worth saving?

The debate has begun in the worlds of the Tion Cluster as the word has leaked that The Rogue Jedi Order are considering a general pardon for former (self-proclaimed) Dark Lord Of The Sith, Ahnk Rashanagok.”

Leia paused then and considered.

Several… months? Years? It has been so long, she could no longer remember exactly when, but back when Xylon and Gash had served together in The New Republic… Ahnk had came to them and told them he wanted to redeem himself. To follow the path that Gash himself had chosen. To be forgiven, and serve the lightside…

Ahnk had come aboard The Jenova. While there, he watched as his armies refused his orders, attacking The Republic instead.

Leia had been one of the select few informed that Ahnk had been arrested… after Xylon had nearly cut him in two. The broken body of Ahnk had been frozen in stasis while the headache of what to do with him was sorted…

Time passed. Those loyal to Ahnk were either accepted into the ranks of The New Order as human soldiers, or cast out as subservient aliens. His name became a whisper in the spoken narrative of history… a footnote now as time moved his Empire behind…

But all the while, he sat, in stasis. When Gash left, Ahnk, frozen on Ossus, as no longer an issue of The New Republic so his status had left her mind… now, he was in the news. A curious development.

She resumed the playback.

“Ahnk Rashanagok murdered and connived his way to galactic power. At first, he killed The Sith who stood between him and the power he craved, so no one really gave a shit. A bad guy killing bad guys was all well and good with most of us and so we looked the other way. But of course, once he ran out of bad guys to kill, he started killing good guys and then everything was all of a sudden turned around because if you murder someone who is perceived as innocent it’s a much more serious crime than if you murder someone who you assume is not.

So he escalated his violence and everyone suddenly decided he was a tyrannical despot.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t condone murdering anyone, but that’s kind of the point of what I was saying; nobody seemed to mind the guy as long as he killed people that were generally thought of as bad guys. As if bad people can’t have families, friends, lives. As if people can’t be thought of as bad people and still remain morally good.

But that’s a little further on in the rant.

The main point of contention seems to be The Sith Brotherhood’s invasion of The Tion Cluster. Saheelindeel, Raxus, Argai, Chandaar, Dellalt, Cadinth, Jaminere, Lianna… all marched upon by forces loyal to Ahnk Rashanagok. Sure, admirals of Ahnk like Gue and Exel are named as war criminals too, but the head honcho gets blamed for it all in this case.

Is it fair? To hold one man responsible for war?

There’s no doubt that in war, terrible things happen. Especially with Sith. They’re bloodthirsty and barbaric. They make examples with body parts pinned against walls and poles. They’re generally not nice guys. Did atrocities happen? Slavery? I don’t really have much doubt that yes, they probably did.

Does killing Ahnk Rashanagok undo what he did? Will it bring those killed in war back from the dead?

At what point does justice stop being justice and become vengeance?

At what point does someone become too far gone to save?

That’s the main argument here, so let’s rewind the tape a little bit. The Eternal Rogue Order was formed by members of The Naboo Sith Order who broke away to cut a more militaristic bent across the galaxy. Recon Klain was the proud leader of the faction but one of his chief lieutenants was Xylon Hexrya. Hexrya was personally responsible for implementing the labor camps on the world of Vandelhelm to begin to supply the Rogue Order with its’ massive warfleets. He was responsible for the subjugation and death of thousands, if not millions, of natives of Vandelhelm, not even mentioning the continuing campaigns of the Rogue Order across the stars and the lives that they claimed…

But then, Hexrya decided that he wanted to absolve his soul.

And he was forgiven.

Then there’s Searthen Jiren. Gash, as he was ‘affectionately’ known, was a brutal, partially robotic Sith Lord. Allergic to bacta, the man took on a horrible appearance with every new cut and scar from battle… and there was a lot of battle. Hexrya was a competent commander and inspiring leader known for his ability to craft together words… Jiren was just brutal. He was a skilled swordsman and he loved to fight. As a Sith, it is estimated that he likely killed more people with his blade and his hands than any before.

But then Jiren came before The Jedi Council. He wanted to be absolved of his crimes, and prove his moral value to the good guys.

He, too, was forgiven.

Ahnk has been sitting in a jail cell… one presumes, since details on his life and times have been scarce since he abdicated power and The Sith Brotherhood dissolved. Now, there is word that Gash Jiren, an increasingly controversial figure given Thrawn’s attacks on The Rogue Jedi Order and Jiren’s diplomatic branches to The New Order, has considered granting Ahnk a pardon for his crimes and allowing him Ossian Citizenship.

That would assume that Ahnk would still be considered an Intergalactic Wanted Person across known space outside the reach of the RJO and would likely be arrested, and possibly executed, if he left Ossus.

Which in and of itself is a questionable approach, but perhaps even more surprising is the backlash that this news made when it was leaked to Ossian citizens.

Understandably, the idea of pardoning somehow who has done things as egregious and immoral as Ahnk has is always going to be controversial, but, I pose the question, who here is fit to judge a man? To take a measure of his moral compass?

Who judges?

Who is fit to render that kind of judgment?

There’s a theory on balance and interpersonal interaction that I heard once, and I feel it appropriate to recite it now. Bear with me; the relevance is to come. The theory asks, what if we are all trapped in the gravity of another being like ourselves? Microcosmic beings that we are in comparison, we’d work from the top down, affecting the greater, the lesser, the small, and the large, and offer up the reasoning that all things must be insignificant together, or together be worth everything equally. Because if that is the way of the things, then my magnets and those of the sun must attract and repulse in equal measure; otherwise, chaos would result.

When I stopped to consider the nature of these ideals I was forced to the conclusion that while at once it seemed as truth it was a theory that was too often disproved by our lack of singularity.

But maybe there is a fear in such a singularity.

Not much like the fear of the unknown of something, but also the fear that for something to result of significant positivity, there would be something of untold horror necessary for the implementation of such a thing.

As I consider these ideals, I felt a fraud, a poor philosopher, and no longer worthy of judging what is good or bad.

Maybe there is no good, no bad. Maybe the nature of things is a cyclical wheel of balance whereby the turning of something towards the good can only be carried out upon the momentum of the turning of the wheel from the bad. Maybe point and counterpoint must be present in equal measure in order for the continued operation of the wheel as we know it.

Maybe it’s all just a bunch of bullshit.

I don’t have all the answers, but I think the main point of this rant, is that none of us do.

There is no right answer to the question. There is no one fit to judge who is worthy of redemption. In my opinion, it’s best not to question the moral ramifications of something, but rather the pragmatic possibilities. The man is willing to do good to offset what he sees as horrible crimes. He admits that he has a lot of catching up to do. Does this work that he is putting in, voluntarily, to better society, not surely lead to a better balance, and equilibrium, than if we simply killed him?

Does it not benefit us all that Ahnk Rashanagok be forgiven?

While it’s true that the further you go, the longer it takes to get back, does not everyone deserve a chance to make peace with what they have done?

I honestly don’t know why I said any of that since I know you’ll all just hang the fucker since an execution is good for ratings.

Nonetheless. Consider it the next time someone says they’re sorry. Ask yourself if you’re fit to judge them unworthy of forgiveness.

Because you aren’t.

You’re just as insignificant as I am.

And I don’t know whether you should feel soothed or pained.

All I know is that I feel fucking dirty and ashamed.

I’m going to take a warm bath and drink room temperature whiskey.

Until tomorrow,

Viryn Quell.”

Leia leaned forward in her chair and set her empty cup down on the desk. There was a lot of information in there to take in and a lot of it was moral considerations that she had long ago faced. She had accepted a long time ago when Hexyra had joined The Jedi Order that sometimes one had to learn to look past the misdeeds of a person’s past and consider their willingness and ability to make things better for the future.

Such was the same with Gash.

She accepted those who had done evil if they came with an honest and true heart. The willingness to change was strong in those who joined The Order and there had been no exception that which those who had made the change had done much good work to justify their good standing.

She smiled. She was not being informed of Ahnk because she had met the man only once in battle. There was no concern of hers in the case of whether Rashanagok was forgiven or not. She had been sent a different message.

Gash Jiren… was sorry.

Her smiled widened a bit. While that idea would take some getting used to… she found herself unfit to judge his worthiness for forgiveness. Realizing that, however, she didn’t really feel all that dirty. Rather… she felt… cleansed.

Even a little absolved.

It has been said of beauty; it can be had, or it can beheld. One could not do both, for to touch is to taint, and change the nature of what beauty is. - Unknown

“A warship.”

The man stood in awe of what he saw; it stretched, almost forever. It was black, as black as night, and would disappear amongst the stars. Shadowpaint, they’d called it; an innovation of the Mandalorians. Not easy to procure, was Mandalorian technology. Not easy for the common man.

His resources are indeed extensive.

The man turned from the ship to the man beside him on the rail. “Stay out of my mind, Ahnk.”

I apologize, Lord Avery.

Avery nodded. “He did do well, your Mr. Vinda. This is indeed a formidable warship.”

He is a savvy businessmen, with much to offer our organization. This vessel is a fitting gesture to a man such as yourself.

“It’s wise of you to know your place, Sith Apprentice Ahnk,” Avery commented. “You have found a role in our organization, but do not get ahead of yourself; you are still only a novice within The Brotherhood Of The Sith.”

Of course, Lord Avery. I aspire to follow the example that The Dark Lord Exar Kun has laid out for me to seize what I may when it benefits the Sith.

“Indeed,” Avery said, disinterested.

It was not a good time for The Sith… war had broken out between members of The Naboo Sith Order, forcing a rift between Masters such as Darth Snack and Darth Mayhem, and more ambitious and bloodthirsty Masters, such as Recon Klain and Lord Maim. Klain had even raised a new banner… that of The Eternal Rogue Order. He vowed to remain independent from any Sith Council… whether it be Nubian in origin, or from Exar Kun himself.

The Sith Brotherhood stayed neutral in such conflicts; as long as there were Jedi to fight, it saw no point aligning itself with or against any other Sith. Power was power, and who seized and held what was irrelevant; there was always more. Exar Kun had instructed Ahnk and Avery both to wait… he would continue to watch the developing situation, and would interject if he felt it would better The Sith Brotherhood.

Then Gwyneth Archer died.

She had been a Sith Lordess under Exar Kun for some years before Ahnk arrived at The Temple. Another of Kun’s disciples, Lord Himon, had mocked Avery about his relationship with Archer. On her death, Avery was furious, and livid that Exar Kun stopped him from pursuing the rumor that Recon Klain had assassinated her. Kun argued that rumor was not enough to justify attacking Klain; that it was probably a deliberate attempt to lure Avery into an unwinnable war. Kun told Avery that Avery wanted revenge, it would be best served by searching out for the truth, and holding the true killer responsible.

So far, Avery had found nothing. But this ship… oh, this ship could help.

“This… Shadowpaint… does it have an effect on sensors?” Avery asked, running his hand along the side of the ship itself.

It absorbs sensors and prevents them from making any sort of reading, negative or positive. It would disrupt active scans through the entire region.

“Excellent… excellent!” Avery said. “This will be the ultimate weapon for a Sith to wield… with this, finding, and executing, Archer’s killer would be a much simpler proposal. “What are its armaments?”

Comperable to a Victory Class Star Destroyer, but with additional gravity well projectors, to eliminate the need for support interdictors.

“I want to begin hunting,” Avery commanded. “Have you assembled a crew, as I commanded?”

Indeed I have. A hundred men, the most loyal to you amongst the ranks of The Brotherhood. Men who would pledge their lives, serving and dying in your defense.

“And the fighter compliment?”

Only a dozen; Lord Kun has stated that more shall be transferred after your initial field test.

“Very well, then, let us not waste time,” Avery stated. “I will take command of the vessel now. You will pass on your thanks to Mr. Vinda for me.”

Ahnk nodded. Avery turned and began walking to the docking bridge between the spaceport and the ship, unaware of Ahnk’s widening grin.




The bridge of Avery’s new warship, which he has christened Avenger, was sparsely lit; the feeling inside was of a submarine, hidden beneath the depths of the ocean, poised to strike at any second. Ahnk had explained that the settings of the lights and life support systems were on minimal so that the power drain of the more mission critical systems could be adequately measured. Avery, however, preferred the dark; what light was there seemed more powerful and more important, and was more easily monitored and understood. Clarity of information in the heat of battle was important, so for all Avery was concerned, this ambience could remain a permanent fixture on the vessel.

“Status report,” Avery asked, and a man in the Captains chair stood up and saluted.

“All stations ready,” the man offered in reply. “We have the minimum crew as required of a vessel this size. Engineering reports the faster than light capabilities have been inspected and should function to specification. The weapons systems are charged and primed; missiles loaded, tracking beacons prepared, and deflector shields tuned to synchronize with our other systems. As you know, this vessel is primarily designed as a stealth ship, thus, its ability to reroute power from one system to another in order to minimize the powerplant output and profile is second to none. We haven’t finished mapping all the conduits, but there is a conduit from the main powerplant to more or less every system on the ship.”

“Good,” Avery said. “I want to be able to turn this vessel from a hidden dagger to a fully powered cannon at my command. Can you do so?”

The captain nodded. “From all signs, this ship was designed primarily to carry power in just such a situation.”

Avery grinned widely. “Then take us out of spacedock, and prepare to set a course.”

The captain nodded. “Take us out of spacedock, helmsmen.”

“Yes sir,” the man at the control console affirmed as he began to execute the Sith Lord’s will.

“What course shall we set?” the captain asked, folding his hands behind his back and standing tall in front of his Sith Lord commander.

“Our spies from Vjun reported recently of a visit by the Eternal Rogue Order,” Avery noted, considering. “I would say we should begin there. Prepare our hyperdrive engines for their fastest speed, and set a course for revenge.”

”Yes sir,” the captain said, smiling.

“My Lord,” a man said, from the communications station. “Incoming transmission. Its Sith Lord Ahnk.”

Ahnk? That surprised Avery. Ahnk was unable to speak due to what Avery had done to his vocal chords, so all speech he made was through The Force. If so, why did he need the communications channel? “Put him on the main screen,” Avery commanded, curious. “Sith Lord Ahnk. Wanted to say goodbye?”

Indeed, the tattooed Sith Warrior replied. I wanted to tell you more about that vessel of yours, and how it was designed. Did you know that standard Imperial ship design includes only two branches of power distribution conduits… one for primary systems, and one for emergency backups in the event the primary generators fail?

“That seems logical,” Avery said, “though I’ve noticed that this vessel has substantially more capability in that regard.”

It was difficult to design; frustrating for Mr. Vinda and his research staff. The redundancies, the sequences, the backflow preventation measures… how to trigger the system in the correct order at the correct times… the power distribution network took months to design, and had to be designed and partially constructed before any other component.

“This is all… very fascinating, I assume, but, I ask you, why are you telling me this?” Avery said. “And why over the open communication channel? You speak through The Force. Why not simply speak as such to me?”

Ahnk’s tattoos curled as his face registered some measure of surprise. I wanted to see your face, of course, Ahnk stated as if such would be obvious.

Before Avery could reply, the ship gave a massive shudder; the silent darkness Avery had grown fond of was shattered by flashing red lights and ringing alarms. “What the hell was that?”

Avery did not see Ahnk’s smile as he focused instead on his own crew. “Damage report!” the captain shouted out.

“Massive detonation along the midship,” one of the crew reported. “Crew quarters, the galley, and the midship munitions storage are… gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?” Avery shouted, incredulous. “How could so much damage penetrate our shields?”

The captain turned to Avery, solemnly. “The explosion originated from within the ship itself, My Lord.”

Then, and only then, did Avery understand. He turned back to Ahnk. “You did this.”

I confess that I did, the Sith offered back, boastfully. It was not easy, designing a system that would feed the radiation of the hyperdrive engines across a power distribution network, feeding that energy into the munitions storage supply of blaster gas, and yet have that system seem from the outside to simply be a functional redundancy of the vessels normal power network. It took many hours, and much patience, but this moment makes it all worthwhile.

Avery found himself flying again as another explosion rocked the ship. “Damn you Ahnk!”

“We’ve lost the starboard ventral compartments,” one of the officers stated. “The medical bay, and escape boats.”

No way to escape now, Avery, Ahnk offered with a sinister smirk.

“Shut off the engines!” Avery commanded.

Oh, as if I’d make it that simple, Ahnk said, his grin growing wider.

“Controls aren’t responding,” the same officer stated. “The engines will not disengage.”

“Then open fire!” Avery said. “Turn our weapons on that spacedock. Kill Ahnk Rashanagok.”

You don’t give me enough credit, Avery, Ahnk stated. You never have.

“Firing starboard turbolasers!” the officer shouted.

The vessel rocked again as another explosion shook its otherwise stable orbit.

“Damn it!” Avery shouted, furious. “What now?”

“Activating the starboard turbolasers triggered another explosion,” the officer noted. “Firing weapons only seems to accelerate the progression of the preprogrammed detonation package.”

“Give me options,” Avery said.

Make peace with your death, Ahnk stated. You may not be able to survive this, but you can at least die with more dignity then did your precious whelp.

Avery’s stare turned cold. “What did you just say?”

Ahnk’s grin was bordering on feral. Oh yes, Lord Avery. It was I who assassinated Gwyneth Archer. Unfortunately the reports of her being attacked by Recon Klain were manufactured… I had hoped to use that story to keep you distracted as I consolidated my power base. No, I happened upon Gwyneth Archer. I trapped her on the world of Jaminere and surrounded her by ysalamiri to keep her from reaching you. Then I broke her. Not once. Many times. I beat her. I debased her, and degraded her. I took her to within an inch of her life, and had her beg me to let her die. Then I healed her, and left her to consider how worthless she truly was.

“You’re an animal, Ahnk,” Avery commented.

Oh, she said the same at first, but her resistance wore thin in time. You see, she wasn’t truly a Sith… not on the inside. She may have wielded the weapon and worn the robes, but she was merely a pretender to the throne. I tore beyond the surface; I found what was inside her. I held her heart in my own hands, and felt only weakness there. No anger, no hatred, no furious fire that a Sith should carry inside. Only love for you, and fear of me. She wasn’t even worthy enough to die by my hand. When I was finished amusing myself with torturing her, I let the Massassi eat her. Slowly. It took her three days until the blood loss killed her.

“You’re going to die for this,” Avery said. He stared coldly at the tattooed Sith’s projected image.

My only regret in killing you, Ahnk said, as the vessel shook again from another large explosion, is that you will die instantly. I will have to take satisfaction in only knowing that you knew your lovers fate before you died; and that you, just like her, proved too weak and too stupid to stop me.

Avery raised a gloved hand. “We shall see,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

Oh Avery, your arrogance is astounding even now, Ahnk said, almost gleefully. So blinded with your will to seek revenge against a man who committed no crime, did you walk past a man actively plotting to kill you; this station, too, is filled with ysalamari. So try and reach out with The Force and rupture an artery in my brain, or break an oxygen recycler and choke me to death. You, too, Avery, are simply too weak, and too stupid, to wield the mantle left by Exar Kun. You don’t deserve the title of Sith Lord. You will die as a man… and only as a man.

Avery turned to the captain. “Change our course,” he said. “Ram that station. I want his tattooed head to burn along side us.”

The captain sighed, and shook his head. “We’ve tracked the path of the radiation, My Lord,” he said. “We don’t have time.”

Goodbye, Avery of Corellia. When you arrive in hell, give Gwyneth Archer my fondest regards.

Avery turned back to Ahnk. “When you arrive in hell, Ahnk Rashanagok, I will be waiting.”

Until that day, Avery, Ahnk said. He watched, from the window of the spaceport, as the rerouted radiation from the engine’s primary powerplant met with the forward munitions storage located under the main bridge. It took only seconds for the densely coiled tibanna gas stored there to ignite, and when it did, the bridge, the Sith inside, and all others on the vessel died nearly instantly.

And with that, Ahnk stood alone. He’d killed all remaining competition within the order.

When he returned to Yavin, Ahnk declared himself to be The Dark Lord Of The Sith.





When a man kills a man, oftentimes a man loses a piece of himself in that death. It is rare for a man to kill a man to reclaim a piece of himself instead. Such is sometimes the nature of revenge. – Unknown

And I wonder, where have you gone?
And I wonder, what have you done?
What have you done? - Old Love Song