Imperial Nights (Red)

[Apillis]

The sun was setting, and the layer of smog that hung over New Usine turned its sky into a vivid red with a layer of fiery orange just on top of it. The orange hues were not so different from her own eyes as Hervor gazed up at the city's sky not really paying much attention to the thunderous marching of Sith soldiery through the town square after the unit's apparent victorious return after their time spent hunting down rebels in Dantooine's wilds. Though truly she was only there at the request of the unit's commissioned officers who stood at her flanks in sharp attention. Her only reasoning for agreeing was the officers' reasoning the appearance of a Sith Lord to greet the soldiery would boost morale not just for their unit but others on Dantooine as well. The Sith Lord who lead the Sith assaults against the Republic on Ordo and Thila as well as her machinations with her rumored lover in Lorrd--Hervor has amassed quite the reputation aside from what was for most species an ancient history of warfare and conquest.

Though there in the square was New Usine's little 'monument', essentially that of a crucified corpse of one of the rebels the Sith here have been struggling to deal with. Hervor found it a little amusing, but all in all she did not care for the city, it could all burn in nuclear fire and she would not even bat an eyelash at its destruction or any of its people's passing. Her sole reason for being there was merely to check on Dantooine's progress since the Empire's occupation out her sense of feeling obligated to given her position within the Sith Order.

When the ceremonious marching through the square came to its close at the cusp of the sunsets end and dusk's beginning. In precise military formality turning sharply to her, the leading officer--a captain uttered, "Thank you, my Lord, for indulging us. Your presence I know gave our soldiers immense pride--it may be a small favor you granted us being here. But--"

"I understand the concept of boosting morale, Captain.", she interjected, for one who wears her emotions on her sleeve as she does, the bored half-lidded expression in those fiery eyes of hers spoke volumes.

Though it was in the moment she begun to feel something--a shift in the air--the Force, it was faint and unfocused, but she felt it. She has felt such a thing before in her many years... an untrained Force-sensitive. The Imperial captain opened his mouth in an attempt to speak with her further, "Leave me.", she uttered once again interjecting before the captain could speak further to her.

Rather than question a Sith Lord of Hervor's ilk, the officers all did exactly as she demanded. Simultaneously they snapped to attention and saluted her to which she merely gave a stoic nod, and they then immediately left the scene while Hervor remained where she stood in the square. She crossed her arms under her chest as she stood there, reaching out--feeling outward from within herself to her surroundings--seeking out that disturbance she perceive but a moment ago.

A small smile formed on her lips as she begun to focus her perceptions upon the presence, and abruptly she turned on heels looking right in its direction...

[Red]

Mithus winced as he along with several others watched the Imperial troops make a show of force as they marched into the town square. The day was almost over, the businesses were closing up shop and only the tardy remained to scavenge a few closing deals, but everything stopped when the marching started. While the timed steps were loud on their own, for the boy it was like a war drum pounding inside his skull, vibrating so hard that he felt it in his teeth.

These were the men responsible for his parents death, the men who killed anyone just to get at the rebels no matter the age or gender. He felt obligated by pride alone to stare at them with as much hate as he could muster, which, considering his young age, just made him look like a brooding child. He felt a tug on his arm. Allena was trying to get him to leave, to whisk him away to the safety that was her parents house far from view of the Imperials, but he dragged his feet and shook her off. Didn't she understand that there was no hiding anymore? These men and women would blow up her house too if they wanted, and no amount of begging or running was going to save them now.

Doom! Doom! Doom!

The pounding grew in intensity as a hot sensation seemingly burst from his chest and quickly enveloped his entire body. Mithus couldn't tear his eyes away from the uniformed men and women as they bore into anyone that dared glance his way. He didn't notice his movements, the harsh whispers of Allena as she tried to to get him to stop. All that mattered now was that they knew, that these people KNEW that he was among the crowd, and that his pain, his misery that they inflicted that day was going to be repaid.

Doom! Doom! Doom!

They had stopped their marching and fallen still, but the pounding inside of Mithus was growing ever stronger. Now it was all he heard, a numbness over his body that made him feel both unnaturally aware of the faces he glared, and inconceivably oblivious to all other things. The crowd was dispersing, but he remained, and as they adults left they soldiers would find him, would lock eyes with him. To his surprising satisfaction they all flinched, broke eye contact and looked else ware. 

Doom! Doom! Doom!

His mind was reduced to an almost feverish state. No longer was he concerned with leaving or being spotted by the Imperial forces, certainly no adult would step in and risk their neck for him. All that mattered was he assert his dominance, at least in his mind, over them. But then...it wasn't really his dominance. How was he to know that this unnatural staring contest, the absence of his rational mind was the result of something..or someone else. He wasn't staring at them to make them balk or even challenge their authority. No Mithus was trying to find the source of this power, this emotional storm that would, and had consumed his young mind.

Finally his eyes reached a lone figure whose back was to him, but he knew. He gasped when her eyes found him. When he thought back to this moment many years later, Mithus would recall the sudden fear that took his breath and stilled his heart when yellow eyes met black. The sudden foreboding that made itself known in the pit of his stomach as her power washed over him in waves. And, if he were honest with himself, the sense of thirst in his throat as he wanted to make those powers his own.  

[Apillis]

A young boy--looking back at her upon her taking notice of him. Her head canted a little to her right with a small smile of amusement. Looking over it was obvious to her he was just one of the city's little street rats scraping by with whatever they manage to pull from the gutter. For one to be a Force-sensitive, now there was a bit of curiosity for Hervor.

Her long legged strides carried her toward the boy, she standing a slim, willowy five foot ten inches tall, she towered over the little boy. Those fiery irises surrounded by black, she gazed right into the little one as though she were looking beyond his material being--the crude matter of flesh that composed and right into his very existence within the Force.

Hervor was a little impressed he did not try to run from her, most little street urchins scatter when finding themselves even in the same vicinity as a Sith Lord, yet this one lingered. Was he not aware a predator was swimming toward him within the dregs that he fed off of from the bottom of the water's floor?

"Who are you, boy?", though her utterance was in the form of a question the tone was a clear demand expecting an immediate answer, "Do you know what I am?", while her second question seemed like a silly one to ask for it was obvious merely by looking at her or for those sensitive to such things perceiving the very darkness of her being. But while it seemed like it was a question with an obvious answer, she in reality was seeking a more perceptive answer, it in a way was a little test.

[Red]

She was walking towards him. This powerful creature who dressed in camouflage as a woman was walking towards him, her eyes, those inhuman orbs of power locked onto him and he couldn't do anything at all. Somewhere in his consciousness there was a voice telling Mithus to move his legs as fast as possible in the other direction, and to some extent it was working but then it was too late.

She was upon him. Staring down at him like all adults do but the feeling of superiority was like nothing he'd ever felt before, a day of firsts it seemed that would never end. Up close she was much more intimidating, the presence suffocating his mind and body with no end. Her voice didn't help.

She'd asked him a question, but Mithus couldn't find his voice even as his mouth opened to answer it, "....M-...Mithus." There, he'd given his name, not that it meant anything to her, to any of those Imperial bastards. Where were the adults, wasn't someone going to intervene, to rescue him from...from whatever this was? 'Afraid?'  A silly question he asked himself. Of course he was afraid, he was a child after all and no amount of false bravado would save him from the anxiety she brought into his world.

Another question, this one much harder. What she was, it was nothing he'd ever encountered before, and hopefully, if he survived, nothing he'd ever encounter again. But she stood waiting for an answer, so he stood, trying to give one, "I..." What was she? Imperial? No Mithus knew Imperials and none had ever felt like this before. But there were whispers earlier, and one word stuck out in his mind even though he didn't remember who said it...."You're......You're.....Sith."

[Apillis]

Hervor knelt down before the boy so they about eye level with one another, those eyes of hers... where they should be white they were as black as coals, and her irises like embers faintly glowed. The dark side's corruption clearly having marked her visage aside from those fiery eyes alone. Covering her lithe feminine physique with an athletes build of very lean muscle definition, was her simple old black shirt worn out by time, and it was no different for the pants she wore which the leggings she had tucked into her battle-worn dark brown leather boots. Over that was her old Jedi archivist cloak, once white but now from the couple centuries worth of carbine scoring and blood stains from numerous battles it was more of an off-white or faded grey; it was held closed by her equally as old Jedi utility belt and the strange electrum lightsaber that dangled from it.

The cloak billowed out to her sides when she took a knee to look the boy straight in the eyes face to face. She gave him a smile like a teacher whose question was answered technically correctly but was not quite the answer they were looking for, "That I am.", she answered with that feminine husky tone of hers, "But that is a label. Is what I truly am? Are we all the sum of our labels? You are a street urchin, but is that the sum of what you are?", she slowly shook her head answering her own question, "No. It may be what these people, these dregs of galactic refuse may see you as--what they label you in order to compartmentalize you to keep you down, make you easier to deal with... to ignore."

Her smile grew a bit as she went on to say, "But you are more than what they label, aren't you. Yes... You sense things. You feel and perceive things that they cannot. You're aware. Yes?", her smile turned into a knowing smirk, "Sounds like quite a bit more than being a simple street urchin, doesn't it?"

Hervor let out a small chuckle before telling the boy further, "I am Sith. But it is a label, it is a label to grant a small articulation to those who cannot fully comprehend what behold so much power over them. So then it begs the question still... What am I?", she then rest on hand the boy's shoulder and her other on his chest as she uttered to him glaring at him right in the eyes, "I am the embodiment of this fear you feel. I am the manifestation of the terror the people are cowering in their homes experience. I am the very horror in their minds that strikes them in such anguish it paralyzes them from coming out here to save a defenseless little boy from a monster like me. That is what I am.", she then rose to a stand once again towering over the young boy as she looked down at him, "Sith is just a label, and not necessarily an adequate one for what one of my ilk is."

She then gently closed her eyes for a trice before opening them again, "While you may not see or understand it... but there is power in the fear you feel right now. I can take you to a place where there are those--including myself, can teach you how to harness it--master it--make it your power instead of your weakness. Would you like that?", she crossed her arms under her chest as she looked down at the boy, "I give fair warning, though. It is a harsh place, where death is at every corner--where fighting for survival is a norm. However, living here--scraping by for what ever you can scrounge up from the dregs and scrapes these lowly people leave for you, you already know what it means to fight for your survival. But would you not rather fight for power instead? Prove yourself far more than the sum of the label these people categorize you in? Became far more than what most in this galaxy can scarcely fathom?"

In that moment she turned and begun to walk away from the boy as if to leave him behind, but after a few steps she paused and looked back at the boy with a faint smile, "Well... Mithus?", she uttered in a tone clearly expecting for the boy to make his choice. Stay within the filth of Smog City, or come with her--wherever that may be.

[Red]

Mithus had no response for the woman's questions nor did he think she expected him to. Instead he opened his ears and listened as she made her points. Truthfully he didn't know what it meant to be a Sith, only that the title was whispered with scorn and fear.  He could only nod somewhat dumbly at her accusations, of his awareness that others did not seem to have. Was that why she felt the way she did, why he was so enthralled with her presence when he should have scurried away the moment they locked eyes?

She was making an offer to take him, to throw him into a life filled with people much like her, much like him. He'd never considered himself trash or scum, but the way she said it, the way she so casually hinted at his place in the galaxy made him more than a little annoyed. Maybe leaving her was for the best, after all what could he accomplish here alone? If he was truly capable of power wouldn't it be foolish to pass this opportunity by? Especially with nothing else in place to consider. 

Before he gave his answer he turned back towards Allena, towards where his friend should be, but to his dismay, was not. It was for the best. She had her life, parents and loved ones to cherish. Mithus had his destiny, and he wasn't going to back down from it. No matter how scared he felt.

"I'll go....I'll learn."

[Apillis]

"That's good.", Hervor replied to the young boy, "You've taken your first step into a larger world."

The Sith Lord extended her hand to the boy to lead him by hand to New Usine's spaceport, where they both depart from Dantooine, and likely not come back to it for a long time at the very least. For within Hervor's eyes by what she saw of the planet, it held little use outside of agriculture. There was of course the remains of the old Jedi Enclave and scattered ruins and the crystal cave to which the Sith Order no makes use of, but outside of the Enclave itself, there was nothing there that the Sith Order did not have access to elsewhere. It was a farming world, and served little other purpose to that end.

In spite of at one time she was a Jedi and even walked the surface of Dantooine, walked the halls of the Jedi Enclave, finding equanimity within the Force by doing so. It had even been nearly two centuries since she even last stood upon Dantooine's earth. And yet, here she was and she felt nothing for it. Nothing for its mechanized take over by the Sith Empire, felt nothing for untold numbers of men and women having been killed with their homes and families being razed during the Empire's invasion. She simply did not care. Something that just the thought of it stirred her to action as a Jedi, but with so much time having passed as she long had fallen deep into darkness--there was only indifference toward it now.

Instead she finds herself taking away what she viewed could be one of the best things Dantooine had yet to offer, especially if the Jedi were ever have discovered him. A Force-sensitive child, such resources were the key to the Jedi's continued survival, whereas the Sith accepted children of any age. Albeit the boy was too old for the Jedi to take in now, so perhaps it was their own failing for missing a child that had been right under their nose had they only noticed several years ago. But none of that mattered now, the young lad was to become Sith now--by his own choosing of course, and a bit of Hervor's persuasive words.

But it then finally dawned on her to ask as they were walking for the spaceport, "Do you have any family left? If so, one's family is uplifted by their child even being trained within the Sith Order. There is much prestige to merely being even in the larval stages of ascension to what is to be Sith."

[Red]

Mithus hesitated, was he really going to do this? Leave behind the world he knew on an Imperial ship to ever expanding galaxy? Then again, there was nothing left for him here. He slipped his hand into hers, "I'm ready."

The two walked in silence, his eyes studying her as she seemed lost in thought. The way she made him feel, the fear and pain of her presence, was that something he too would radiate once his training was complete? Maybe she started like him, a small child from a backwater world whose fate was forever changed by a powerful presence. Or maybe she was born like this, cursed with an aura that had brought him into a state of mind that he'd never known.

"No, my family is gone." No, there was nothing left for him at all.

[Apillis]

"Even better.", Hervor nonchalantly remarked as she lead Mithus to the spaceport, "Part of Jedi doctrine is possessing no attachments--hence their separating young Jedi children from their families, and while the Sith express that bonds and attachments should be freely experienced... You'll find quietly... more than a few Sith Lords agree with the severing of attachments to oneself--such as a family. Family is an exposed weakness. There are tales of Sith devoting immense resources to keeping their family safe, because they understood it to be an exploitable weakness. Resources that could have been better devoted elsewhere had they been less sentimental and more perceptive and... shrewd."

Hervor then paused in her steps and turned to the boy, and uttered with that natural husky voice of hers in a stern tone as if to give the boy warning, "I give you this caveat and it will be the most important thing to keep in mind for where we about to travel. As melodramatic as it sounds--it is advice that will save your life, for the consequence of not adhering to it is death... or possibly something much worse. And if you do not believe that there are fates worse then death, our next location will make you an ardent believer.", crossing her arms under her chest with a grim expression on her visage, "I digress, though... I would encourage you to freely make friends, allies--when Force-sensitives grow close to someone they even bond with them through the Force--that too I would encourage you to experience. But understand this--do not engage in such things if you are not also willing to cut it off and end it... permanently--the moment you feel it become a burden or feel obligated to those you've become attached to. Even at your age. Termination is your best option."

Normally Hervor is not one for speaking at such length as she has with this boy. However, in this case--she is quite literally taking him to a den of killers to the like the galaxy struggles to find an equal to, and being brought there ill-prepared will certainly see to his death; thus Hervor's taking him there would have proved pointless. So giving him these lessons and advice, at least he will be equipped with some knowledge beforehand and thus have a fighting chance.

Continuing to lead the way to the spaceport, when they eventually arrived at dock specially reserved for high ranking Sith such as herself, the pilot and copilot along with several crew all standing at attention outside their Knaar-class Corvette. As Hervor approached the pilot, she ordered, "Prep the ship for launch. We're leaving for Korriban. The boy is with coming with me to the Sith Temple for training."

Knowing instantly what that means, the pilot snapped to attention bowing his humbly to Hervor, "My Lord.", he then in turn bowed his respectfully to Mithus, "Young master.", he and his crew then immediately with swift precision boarded the corvette going about their duties prepping the ship for launch.

"There are few vessels in the galaxy that will get us to Korriban as quickly as one these ships designed by my people.", remarked Hervor with a slight smirk and a hint of pride in her voice before she walked aboard. Upon boarding the ship she walked tot he bridge where to took a seat in the captain's chair crossing one leg over the other, and with her right elbow upon the right armrest, she propped her head up with right hand as she awaited for the ships launch.

"Best get your last views of it while you can, boy", Hervor told him, "This may possibly be the last time you see Dantooine.", under the strength of its propulsion systems begun to rise from the ground as the dock's hangar doors opened, and with a sudden burst of speed and the tug of vertigo for those instead the corvette it flew off into the void of space at tremendous speed--the planet from the bridge view screens being reduced to the size of a tiny dot and completely vanishing from sight within a matter of a couple seconds. The surrounding stars in the great far off distance within the next trice all pulled back into streaks of light when the ship made the jump to hyperspace to their next destination: Korriban.

[Red]

Mithus could do little more than listen as his education began. What she suggested now simply nailed the proverbial nail into the coffin, the road he'd chosen to go down would be full of harsh truths and violence, but his resolve was not shaken. His family maybe gone, but whatever attachment to them would not waver, especially if what she said was true. No further pain could  be dealt to a memory, no risk in using the days gone by as leverage in some sort of power play. If what she spoke the truth then their death's might have been a blessing in disguise.

Her method of "friendship" seemed more like a business deal than anything else. To use them for your gain, and should there ever be a time that you risk a loss, cut them loose and never look back. It wasn't his style, but it would be helpful to keep in mind that every smiling face was not always a gesture of good will. But it begged a question. If she told him this, did that mean she lived by it? And if so, then what did she stand to gain from his improvement? He should of voiced those questions aloud, but as he opened his mouth to do so Mithus lost his nerve and instead continued on listening in silence. Maybe he would ask her another time.


The ship she traveled in was nothing like he'd seen before. It was big, not the biggest he'd ever seen since cargo ships usually ran large, but it was definitely the sleekest. It possessed a elegance much like the Sith, a dangerous beauty that made one marvel and fear at the same time. Mithus was a little taken back by the show of respect, never had someone bowed to him and he was sure the surprise was written across his face. But soon enough he schooled his features back into neutrality as he continued on.

Mithus found a seat, one that almost allowed his legs to touch the floor and strapped himself in. So this was it, the moment of departure into the unknown. It scared him, but the fear was kept at bay by the excitement. The boy did take on last drink of Dantooine, a silent goodbye to what few friend he had as the ship began to raise into the air. He might return one day, to gaze upon the endless fields with the gentle winds against his face, but he wondered if they'd recognize him when he did.