Shadows of Bankor

Change of Ownership

Bankor, Present Time

Vandil took a seat at her desk and inserted the data chit into the terminal. She was pleased with what she saw and quickly closed the program. The gamble had been worth it and against all odds those two idiots and their droid had delivered the key to her salvation.

Over a decade of slavery as a decade followed by a decade of violence and doing whatever it took to get to the top had culminated into this singular opportunity. Tididol the Hut had been good to her, well good when proved she was worth the creds to keep alive, until then the stupid slug would not have even noticed her shaking her hips and assets for scum in his cantinas and on her pleasure barge.

She contacted her secretary and said, “Vit, I am not to be disturbed for the next hour. Understood?”

The droid responded with an affirmative as she sealed the doors and then did a sweep of her chamber for listening devices before she engaged the cipher on her terminal and reached out to her newest friend.

It took a moment for the connection sync and then the hooded visage formed and spoke harshly, “So have you considered my offer?”

Vandil rose and said, “Refresh my memory on what exactly you want and more importantly how I benefit without every bounty hunter for the next ten sectors coming for my head.”

“I do not enjoy repeating myself but to put it simply, we need to expand our holdings and Hypermatter fuel is a lucrative source of income. The Hutts don’t seem willing to share, so an aggressive takeover is necessary,” the hooded zabrak countered.

“Still not seeing how I survive to benefit from these profits,” Vandil said.

“The Crimson Dawn will step in and work as your partner, the Hutts may come for you but they will not succeed. You will be given control of the sector, you will work for me, your people work for me, and you will be rich as long as I see my cut,” he commanded his eyes narrowing.

“Killing a Hutt won’t be easy and the fallout…” she said trailing off.

“Will lead to better long term profits. Either you are capable of doing this or you are not but do not contact me until you have what I asked for,” he said and then the line went dead.

She sat and signed and knew she had more work to do, but when this was all said and done she would be rich and Tididol would be dead, as they say two vraktagils with a single dagger.

Children

Korriban during the reign of the Ancient Sith Empire

She cursed her body, two centuries was a long time for any Sith to live but she expected more and she expected to live as long as her master and surpass him. She glanced at the reflection of herself in the transpara-steel canopy, her hair was gray in most places and her skin was wrinkled, she was getting old and she hated it. She looked at her daughter and could see her youth in the child and she hated her, too, as much as she loved her.

Sith parenting was complicated even in the best of times.

Her daughter asked if she was feeling well but she waved it off, even in her declining years she would not show weakness. Had she known the toll that Vitiate’s hold would take on her frame she may have lived a different life but such regrets were like the crimson sands that passed by below. Limitless and beneath notice.

The Empress had achieved victory, Coruscant was now in Sith hands, for now. She suspected she had seen what her and Sinea had seen; that this Empire would be as dust as all those that had come before.

The shuttle landed softly and she rose with some effort, her honor guard following in her footsteps as she began the long walk through the courtyard of the Academy. She could see the memories of her past here, the trials and all the things that seemed so important then now were simply phantoms that would soon be gone when she too would know death. She was the last one left of the trio, she had not thought of them in decades but here she could see their faces and there were so many, some she could not even remember their names and at the time they seemed so important to her.

She frowned as she made her way up the steps.

With a gesture of her hands she opened the ancient doors with a mere sliver of her power. She commanded the retinue and her daughter to remain, and then pressed forward. The Dark Side filled these ancient halls, but now they lay fallow and silent. She cursed the Empress for having her meet here, she had a perfectly fine castle on Ziost that would have served this purpose.

She entered the central chamber where the Empress stood, still youthful with those flowing locks of crimson hair. She spoke and said, “Forgive me child if I do not bow, I am here so let’s get on with this.”

The Empress turned and said, “Tenebrous, it has been too long since your wisdom graced my court.”

Tenebrous frowned and then tapped the ground with her can and said, “You roused me for what I have seen not for pleasantries. I do not like to leave Ziost, even for the Empress.”

The Empress laughed and then said, “I thought I would be destined to eradicate the Light, but it is not so. You have foreseen it, and I need to know what I cannot see. What you have seen.”

“This Empire will fall, not today my Empress but it will be as dust and the cycle of Light and Dark will continue but there is a moment distant as it is where the dyad of the Force will be strongest. Two lineages, one of the Dark and the other of Light; beyond that moment even I cannot see,” Tenebrous replied.

“That will be the moment when the Sith are truly ascendent,” the Empress said.

“Last I checked neither of us was immortal, so this knowledge does us little good. This dyad will take thousands of years to manifest and despite your power, Zash and her secrets have eluded even you,” Tenebrous said with a small smile, she did take joy in little cruelties.

“Old age has made your tongue bold,” The Empress hissed.

“I’m old, I’m dying, and if you don’t kill me surely my daughter will find her stones to finish the job. I don’t care, frankly. But there may be a way to traverse the sea of time through our children. A lineage molded by the Dark Side and at the end of untold millenia she can finish what you cannot,” Tenebrous said.

“Risky, foolish even,” The Empress said as she considered this information.

“The will of the Dark Side is clear, you will be the mother of the greatest bloodline of Sith this galaxy will ever know. I would advise you to start having children,” Tenebrous finished.