Geist walked calmly through the vast reaches of the massive library that had been built within the heart of the temple on Xa Fel. This was the one place he felt at home in, wandering amongst the shelves of data. Most of them were electronic storage these days, a method that had its uses but also its downfalls. Reading something off a screen was so different from books, a method that most of the galaxy had practically forgotten about, but not all of it. Some Sith had been rather clever and stored their knowledge not within machines but upon pages. There were several such tomes here but no one ever read them, no one except Geist. The others ventured to simply read electronic copies, an effective way but lost on something so revered as an actual book in this day and age. Some of those books though were locked away, practically held hostage by the libraries keeper, Sutho.

Sutho was a failed Sith Apprentice, but ruled over the library like it was his personal empire and for good reason. Sutho was the only one who knew were everything was, no one dared to question him here, not even the Knights for he could always say he didn't have a copy of what they needed. He was the unofficial lord of knowledge within the temple, hording the knowledge and sharing only with those who showed him respect. The only ones Sutho feared were the Masters, who he aided without a second thought, providing them with whatever they requested almost instantly. Sutho though would not permit certain books to enter the hands of Apprentices, this included several tomes Geist needed to read for his research. This meant tha Geist would have to persuade the arrogant librarian to do what he wanted or get creative.

For now, Geist simply lingered in front of the shielded bookcase, looking longingly at the books he so desired to read but could not at this moment. Once he did this though, he'd have to keep the tomes, to read them as he traveled, this would most definitely annoy Sutho, probably earn Geist a permanent banishment from the library, but he would have what he really wanted then anyways, the books. Its not like it could be considered theft either, he was a Sith student, they were Sith tomes. The librarian was just an idiot who liked to show his power over the flow of knowledge, no Sith ever enforced his policies outside of the library because Sutho was weak, everyone knew it. He was the joke of the order only kept alive by the Triumvirate most likely because he amused them with his usefulness. The books Geist wanted anyways were never touched, they'd actually collected some dust, he could tell through the casing. Not even the masters cared to read them, which thus denoted them as useless to everyone else. Geist saw it differently, it meant then that no one really knew what could be within those pages, even if only the smallest hint. All he had to do was acutally get them...

"You there! The masked one! Get away from those cases!"

The other students in the aisle turned and fled quickly out of it as Geist turned to see Sutho walking towards him very quickly. Sutho was a thin, pale man, with severl tattoos underneath his brown eyes. He had the air of confidence only the petty could ever have, knowing their word is absolute in this realm. Geist avoided Sutho, mainly because the librarian cared to voice the opinion that any Apprentice who wore a mask was an amateur wannabe, unaware Geist wore it for a good reason. This therefore made Geist feel better as he considered smashing Sutho's face into the book case in front of him, but he resisted the urge. He'd ask nicely first, be manipulative and find out what he needed to know.

"My apologies, Sutho, I only wished to know what these books were. I've read all the others but you keep these in a shield for some reason," Geist said calmly.

"Those are the books of the Scurro Macchina, they're my most prized pieces," Sutho said rather proudly now.

"Why does no one read them, then?"

"No one cares about the Scurro Macchina any more, you naive fool. Even the Masters don't care to read them. Its a lost and useless art, no one's done that kind of stuff for millennia," Sutho said dismissively.

"So, that makes these books useless..." Geist said, playing the part of a naive student.

"More or less... the Masters have expressed the opinion that these books would more useful as toilet paper, but they're my books damn it! It took me forever to hunt these down, they're the only ones ever made because the art really is useless, especially when a Dark Lord can just as easily summon forth force lightning and bone breaking abilities all on their own. No one gives a damn about the creations of the old Sith Lords and darksiders anymore, they're all too busy jockeying for real power."

"Ahhh, so I likely wouldn't be punished for taking these from you?" Geist asked in a suddenly cold voice.

"What.."

Sutho found himself pressed up against the bookshelf, staring at the reflection of his own terrified eyes off the dark lenses of Geist's mask. He then felt something sharp poke into his ribs, the knife from Geist's right arm.

"Don't scream or I'll gut you," Geist snarled, his synthesized voice almost inhuman now.

Sutho looked helplessly at Geist and then tried something he hadn't done in a while, calling on the force. The racks of datacards on the shelf behind Geist shifted, rattling a little, making Geist go tense.

"Try it, just try it and see what I'll do to you," Geist said in cold, unmerciful tones.

Sutho stopped, shaking in terror now as he looked into the dark lenses of the ruthless man holding him against his own shelves.

"How do you open the shield."

"Why, why do you want those books. The Scurro Macchina are useless, even a washout like me knows that. There's no power in them, nothing worth reading even, just the mad ramblings of the Macchinari, those Sith who studied or built them. Imbuing machinery with the force, what nonsense... GKKKK!"

Sutho found Geist's hand around his throat, squeezing.

"I said, how do you open the fucking shield, washout."

"My....key...card...." Sutho gasped.

"Thank you."

Geist pulled Sutho from the shelf, spun him to face it and promptly rammed his face hard against the shelf, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious as he nose dribbled blood on his clothing. Geist kneeled down and removed the mentioned keycard from an inner pocket on Sutho's vest and rammed it into place. A panel opened, revealing a scanner large enough for a hand. Geist gave the unconscious Sutho a vicious glare but then dragged the unconscious librarian over and put his hand on the pad. The panel beeped and the shield died, opening the case to fresh air. Geist then drew the satchel from his side and carefully placed all three books into it. He couldn't truly be punished for this, he was sure. He'd left Sutho alive, thus not hindering Sith teachings, and these books were worth nothing to the order. Sutho himself had more or less said that he'd found them for himself, for his collection, most likely of rare books. The higer level Sith might still get aggravated, Geist wasn't sure, but he didn't care, he had what he wanted and he knew they wouldn't probably even make him give them back. The books belonged to Geist by right of strength, he'd simply taken them from Sutho, someone weaker. That was the Sith way, if someone weak had knowledge you required, you took it.

Geist turned and calmly departed from the aisle, walking across the massive central floor to the exit, leaving without a second thought. Sutho would wake up eventually, but by then Geist would have already left to continue his search. He would make sure to leave a message behind for those above him, so as to not draw anger or suspicion as he searched for this lost dark art as well as other sith artifcats. The first thing he needed to do though was to depart Xa Fel and steal a bigger ship for his long term search.

Geist walked calmly through the temple, first stopping into his chamber, writing on a datapad and tossing it onto the bed. He then turned and departed, heading out of the temple to the small temple complex to the right that had been converted into a docking bay. He found his shuttle and walked up the ramp, stowing his books away in a hidden compartment before he started to warm up the engines. As his ship whirred to life, Geist walked down the quietly waiting to see if Orion would come along as he'd said he had wished to.

Orion woke up in the morning with his leg slightly better, but he knew that was no excuse to not use his stick and show his weakness. One day he would be free of the shame and his leg would be better all tough it didn’t help it to be running around after dark side artefacts. Orion began meditating and concentrated at his surroundings, he felt the room which wasn’t often used and then proceed to the outside. Small dark beings walked the hallways, some chatting and some quietly walking alone. He suddenly spotted a certain person and snapped out of his meditation, Orion grabbed his staff and got up. He began limping out of the room and opened the door quietly, he looked around him to find the person, but he was gone.

Orion shrugged and made his way to the mess hall like everyday, but this he at least ate something and kept everything as his own business. Every hit of his stick against the floor were always one sound of pain and healing, it slightly hurt still in his leg, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight. Orion passed the library and heard some racket so decided to check it out, the library had became the favourite place of all. Unfortunately the thin library keeper Sutho was always complaining about Orion’s information borrowings and night trips into the library. He saw Sutho with Geist next to a shelf that Orion had no interest usually in, but had looked at it few times and pondered it’s information. Orion hid behind a bookshelf to listen to the arguing of the two and finally Geist took the books leaving the library, Orion limed to Sutho with a smile on his face.

"What did he want and what did those books contain?"

Sutho looked at Orion with a slight smile on his face because Orion always mocked Sutho and haunted him in the library with his ironic comments, if the opportunity presented itself.

"He took some useless books that not even the masters read that’s all..."

Orion smiled knowing that Sutho was very protective of the library.

"Sure... then why was he so interested of them Sutho?"

Orion smiled and turned to leave Sutho with his books, Orion limbed out of the library remembering that Geist had spoken of looking for sith artefacts, but where would that be? Did these books and the place have some sort of connection? There had to be something because otherwise Geist wouldn’t bother, but if Geist would have fallen for some old useless babble then it would be quite humiliating. Orion limbed to the shuttle bay and saw Geist on the landing ramp, Orion raised his hand as to greet his “friend” and limbed into the shuttle past Geist. Orion sat down at the back; he placed his stick between his legs as he sat in the chair and threw his hood down. He looked at the wall with a pondering face.

What is he up to?

Orion asked himself, but for now decided to keep his thoughts to himself until more information would be revealed to him and then he could perhaps learn the whole plot of Geist. If he would ask him now Geist would only shut down completely, but trust was the first step of being deceived and that was something Orion needed to gain, if he wanted to know more.

"Shall we go?"

Orion suddenly said and looked at Geist with slightly raising his eyebrow.

Geist calmly boarded the ship, raising the ramp and closing the hatch before simply nodding to Orion and going into the cockpit where he started the takeoff sequence. The repulsorlifts gave a low whine as the lifted the shuttle off the ground and eased its way into the sunlight, flying upwards as the ion engines kicked in. The shuttle shot up through the atmosphere and into the darkness of space as Geist quietly programed the first hyperspace coordinates they would head to. He then left the ship on autopilot and quietly moved to the back cabin with Orion, removing the satchel of books from where he hid them earlier and pulled the first one out, opening it up and reading through it. As he quietly read, he finally spoke up.

"I hope you don't mind dinge and filth, we're going to Nar Shadda first. There's a dealer in rare items I know of who we should visit there as well as the fact that Nar Shadda is our best bet for stealing a bigger, faster ship. I hope your not below theft and murder, because on Nar Shadda that means we'll likely need to kill a few people to get the ship. Besides, there's someone there I need to visit."

Geist chuckled calmly to himself and continued reading the book with interest, examining several drawn diagrams of strange, small mechanical creatures that were contructed by those who wrote this book. They were rather fascinating though this book made mention of the other two as he slowly read on, speaking of how certain items had to be created, including some special kind of power source. Geist delved deeply in the book, amazed that anyone could find this information useless when there was such fascinating things within. Things that could move and act and even kill, but this was only the tip of the iceberg as he read in one area. There were even greater examples, using more advanced electronics but the art had never fully been understood to that point. A mention of someone named Darth Malak was found on the pages, speaking of his use of the discovered technologies for his war effort with something called a Star Forge.

How intriguing, this is speaking of the Jedi Civil War, back after the Mandalorian Wars. Its been so long ago, could there really be anything left from that era? But of course there was, Korriban was rumored to be filled with things back from when the Great Hyperspace War had been fought, even before that when the first darksiders found the world and used it as a fortress. There must be remnants of this technology I can use, perhaps even some darkside knowledge for Orion...

Geist's gaze shifted from his books to his fellow Sith apprentice, who sat in the back silently, probably wondering just what is was Geist had stolen. Geist merely chuckled mentally for he'd tell him if he asked because Geist was sure that Orion had no interest in darkside mechanology, probably only in what was considered practical application. That was fine, the darkside needed those that were its visible wielders, he however was more of one for surprise and trickery which many of the things he was now looking at could be used for if not otherwise.

Orion sat in front of Geist who opened up the satchel revealing the books, which made Orion’s eyes quickly to look at them, but turned away as Gesit took out the book and continued their blank stair at the wall. Geist seemed to be very protective of them because it seemed to hold what Geist was looking for or at least information of it. Orion wasn’t really interested of Geists goals, but his if there was any dark side knowledge to gain on this trip, but at least he could always say to himself that this was one experience and a lesson of life. Orion continued his blank face as Geist began speaking to him.

"I hope you don't mind dinge and filth, we're going to Nar Shadda first. There's a dealer in rare items I know of who we should visit there as well as the fact that Nar Shadda is our best bet for stealing a bigger, faster ship. I hope your not below theft and murder, because on Nar Shadda that means we'll likely need to kill a few people to get the ship. Besides, there's someone there I need to visit."

Orion smiled because if Orion remembered correctly Geist came from there and the place had been recently blockaded by the imperials, but the hutt`s had made a deal with them so that they wouldn’t get crushed or well actually one of the hutt clans. He looked at Geist with a smile on his face.

"Oh I don’t mind the filth because I’ve seen worse believe me, but in any case Nar Shaddaa must be quite familiar to you, if I recall?"

Orion almost spat on the shuttle floor as he slightly laughed.

"Very glorious jewel indeed, the home place of this galaxies filthiest scum’s and most of all it just happens to be in the hutt space, but I am no thief and I am no killer. I am simply going to borrow someone’s ship and give them release from this damned world..."

Orion smiled to his smart ass comment, he then threw the hood over his head and leaned on the chair heavily. He slightly sighed as he placed his stick on his legs and gripped it as he rested, he might have seemed to be sleeping and his eyes were actually closed. He was actually wide awake, he just rested his eyes as some said and tested, if Geist just continued the reading and Orion believed so. Orion was actually feeling quite tired and perhaps he would have wanted to sleep, but he had discipline and he was stubborn enough from letting his body to relax completely. The night trips to the library had their price, but at least he had been able to go there without complaining with every step in his head last night. Orion relaxed until they would reach Nar shaddaa or Geist would try something unbelievably stupid, which Orion highly suspected.

The shuttle slipped quietly through space on its autopilot and then stopped, pivoting and activating its hyperdrive, pitching it into the swirling depth of hyperspace as it began its journey towards Nar Shadda. Geist looked up calmly from his reading and at Orion who lay there apparently asleep and Geist actually laughed aloud at the farce. He'd known Orion only for a small bit but knew him to be too paranoid to actually go to sleep in the presence of anyone else. Geist made no comment on the obvious test though as Geist went back to reading, pouring over the information within them, digging and sifting through what he found, looking for clues or hints to other things.

One thing he had found, written carefully and discreetly within on of the books was a set of coordinates, not only for a star system, but indicating the exact exact world in the system. It was odd and very cryptic, but Geist would have to investigate that later after he'd visited the artifacts dealer on Nar Shadda and settled a little score with someone. For now he turned his attention back to on the the other books he'd gotten. This one wasn't about machinery though, it was in the use of specially made ones in combination with darkside magics to twist and change flesh. Some of the creatures in the book could have given most people nightmares, Geist looked at them with the same twisted fascinatin he did with the machines. To Geist it was a dark art worth delving into, learning how to twist life and create surprisingly vile machines, sometimes a mixture of both.

Geist read onwards, studying surprisingly simple methods of genetic manipulation via stimulation of glands and chemicals in the body. The book practically spoke of how to turn a person into a monster if given the right kind of treatment. Why did no one try this anymore? Why did the Masters never care to read this? It was like a whole area of Sith teachings had been black listed by the very order that had created them. This was practically lost knowledge, now finding a new home in the mind of a mere Apprentice who was becoming enthralled with it. This knowledge all seemed so much more appealing then simply sitting down and mediating, why sit and think when you could create? The knowledge here opened a whole new arsenal of weapons to throw at the Jedi, rather than just force lightning and lightsabers.

I'll bring this art back, I shall become a Macchinari and resurrect these creations to make our order stronger. The force will feed my creations and my power will grow, I will become a master of a dark art no longer known...

Geist then looked memorized the page he was reading and closed the book, leaning back and and dimming the light of the cabin, slipping as close as to what he considered sleep as possible. It was more a meditation, his eyes forever open beneath his mask, his ears always working, but still he permitted his mind to drift, lingering on the knowledge he'd found. This art would take time to master, but Geist was willing to start work on it as soon as possible adding new knowledge to whatever he may find as they searched for artifacts of the darkside. For now the search was only beginning and they'd arrive at Nar Shadda soon.

Geist seemed very interested in this lost art that even the sith masters thought to be useless, perhaps it had something to do him personally or he just wanted to learn the lost art. Orion didn’t exactly know what Geist was aiming at, but believed that this all was just about power as with all sith, but this was about different sort of power. Something that the sith forgot long ago and didn’t wish to look back, but now Geist was after that and Orion had a bad feeling about this trip. Orion got up and walked into the cockpit without any warning, the ship soon arrived to Nar Shaddaa and Orion sat down to the cockpit, but allowed Geist to pilot the shuttle. He looked at the planet, which was the home of filth or so it seemed because the place was under the hutts. The shuttle flew into Nar Shaddaa and they landed on a free place without caring, if it was taken or not. Orion left the cockpit and opened the landing ramp, he limbed down the ramp to stop at the end with his eyes closed.

The air was full of decay, the nature of the place was dark and greedy with people only running for their own ambitions, which almost reminded him of the sith order except they were on the same side for now. Orion wouldn’t let the sith order fall because then he would have to witness his old masters words to be correct.

All of the sith are too proud and greedy to work together, they would see the order as a tool for their own ambitions and abandon it when they have taken everything they could from it. No, even if the sith gathered they would come crashing down by turning against each others....

Orion never forgot those words, but he would never let the order fail or fail it himself, Orion threw the hood over his head sighing and limbed forwards two feet’s before turning to look at the ramp.

"So... where to now? And might I presume that this meeting you have to go to is with some of your friends?"

Orion waited for Geist while leaning on his walking stick heavily.

Geist walked calmly down the ramp, hefting the satchel with his books in it, knowing that muggers weren't too keen on attacking people that looked like they did. They'd leave the shuttle here for now and make their way across the planet. As for Geist's little meeting, he'd made a quick call while still aboard before joining Orion down at the ramp. Everything would move along well enough and Geist would settle his last score on this world.

"Oh, the meeting? Just an old acquaintance. Lets just say I'd still be here if it wasn't for him."

Geist gave a cold, merciless chuckle.

"For now, its off to the artifacts dealer. He lives in the lower levels of this sector. Shall we descend?"

Geist walked past Orion, heading towards the alleyway that would take them to some turbolifts that would deposit them down into the crawling, vicious nether regions of the Smuggler's Moon. They had a man to visit there who would hopefully hold some information for Geist. From there, he wasn't sure what they'd do besides Geist's need to get his revenge on the man who'd burnt his face off not so long ago. He wasn't sure what he'd do, but he would teach that bastard terror for what he had done and then Geist would kill him.

Darkness lingers among the corners of the mighty training ground of the Jedi Master, Greg Park and his young student Nedthius were very powerful martial artists in swordsmanship and in hand to hand combat. The world would soon open to Nedthius as he was taught to see the world not through his eyes but by his heart. The true force. His master greg park muttered " The force is the might of the heavens themselves, join my side and guard it from those who take it's power and bring darkness". Nedthius smiled and wondered of the wonders its might could do. then he gave a slight nod and said," The force is my witness that i will wield it to defend it". During his next training session he could feel the power and speed of his wooden sword. He felt the force flow through him but, he became infatuated with it. He craved more than just grace and peace. He wanted to become stronger than his master and only through the force could he do such a thing.

Darkness lingers among the corners of the mighty training ground of the Jedi Master, Greg Park and his young student Nedthius were very powerful martial artists in swordsmanship and in hand to hand combat. The world would soon open to Nedthius as he was taught to see the world not through his eyes but by his heart. The true force. His master greg park muttered " The force is the might of the heavens themselves, join my side and guard it from those who take it's power and bring darkness". Nedthius smiled and wondered of the wonders its might could do. then he gave a slight nod and said," The force is my witness that i will wield it to defend it". During his next training session he could feel the power and speed of his wooden sword. He felt the force flow through him but, he became infatuated with it. He craved more than just grace and peace. He wanted to become stronger than his master and only through the force could he do such a thing. The will of the force soon enough could not be heard by his ears and he wanted to just use it to his advantage to make it his slave. He began training in force techniques when his master forbid it and during one of his forbidden training sessions his master broke in armed with his katana and shouted," I felt the current of the force go cold around you, you betray the jedi order and yourself." Nedthius raised his hand as if the air around formed somewhat of a shield and he said," I may have betrayed you and the order but not the will of the force." Then as if lighting had flowed from his hand he attacked his master with bolts of energy. His master defended with the katana just barely holding his ground. " You listened to the whispers of the dark side, the evil is all around you...you leave me no choice, i cannot have the sith claim anymore of this world". His master came into a charge with his katana ready but, Nedthius rose his left hand holding a long shiny cylinder and pressed a button that create a red beam that severed Jedi master greg Parks' arm and chest. His master lay motionless and Nedthius went into the Jedi acadamy and used the force to influence whatever students he could and fled the area to a secluded area known as Mammoth california where he began training his new apprentice in the art of the sith.

Orion walked behind Geist with his walking stick hitting the ground and slightly getting attention, but the stick was only a way to really get them look at the real thing to attention. Orion wore traditional sith robes and few probably knew them so that got their attention really because what would a sith be doing on the smugglers moon? Orion actually enjoyed the situation because they feared him and that was a mark of respect, they didn’t dare to attack him or anything like that nor would any do without a good reason. Orion walked to the elevator, which took them down to the lower levels and turned to Geist at the elevator.

"This old acquaintance is the one who crossed you and is the reason for your current condition I presume by your words? What are you going to do when you get him? Kill him just like that? Torture for him days?"

Orion smiled and slightly laughed an ironic laugh, but slightly with a pitying tone.

"Believe me or not, but that will not ease the pain or your lust for revenge because it never did for me.... I killed my master when he was asleep and did it ease the pain? No.... it only made me ashamed because I had acted like a little thief that creeps in the night for his pray without the courage to show his face, but except my master knew who it was as he died and then cursed my name with his final breaths....What an old fool...."

Orion then stayed to examine Geists reactions as the elevator too them deeper into the stench of the Glorious Jewel...