+Anima Fan Fiction ❯ The Final Song ❯ Leg? ( Chapter 1 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
She knelt in the training room, solitary  ;and feeling as
if she would soon die of boredom. She had done
this for the past five years since she had fi rst met her new master in the torture&nb sp;chambers of the Sith
Academe on Korr iban. That day she had been waiting for& nbsp;Overseer Rantic to interrogate the republic S IS
agent she had found while completing& nbsp;her final trial.
"Thalia! Why don't you have those tablets I sent you for and where are the other acolytes?" the overseer
demanded. "S-ss-Sir, I came back with the republic spy that& nbsp;Lord Tytho had asked me to bring in,&nbs p;she told
me she had already contacted you... and the other acolytes were destroyed...&nb sp;accidental y". At this Rantic
growled deep ly as he advanced on the short, dark haired,& nbsp;human girl."I've never even heard of thi s Sith.
So not only have you failed&nbs p;to complete your final trial but you i nsult me by lying to my face". She slowl y
shrank away from him as he strode  ;forward, fumbling with her practice vibroblade." b-bu-but I did wait
you told me to do, I've kil ed countless insurgents and recovered more artifacts than half of imperial
intel igence"!
" You've been told the rules, you've failed and now" The&nb sp;lightsaber in his hand buzzes to life as a
crackling red blade shoot out of the end."you die"! That's when she passed&nbs p;out.
She woke up in a cold, dark room... no, if I'm going to be tel ing my story I'm gonna do it as me. Taking in
third person is strange. I& nbsp;woke up in a cold dark room. I'm no t sure how long I had been there bu t as
soon as I stood up light  ;burst into the room from what seemed to be from everywhere."Final y, your
awak e". That soft feminine voice was al to familiar, it was the same one that had g uided me through my
trials and told&nbs p;me to find the spy in the slave quarte rs. Shielding my eyes from the light, I could barely
make out her outline. "Thal ia... close cal that time, try to complete your first task before you start on& nbsp;the
next, I hardly had time to enjoy  ;kil ing that overseer." "B-bb-but my lord, y -you told me it could wait".
"oh, yes, I did say that didn't I? Wel & nbsp;i said it could, not that it should . Listen closely dear, else you'l never
make it". By this time my eyes had adjusted and I could se e the scarlet eyes of the sith lord who had
taken it as her personal chal enge to make me a powe rful, wel informed and miserable acolyte.&nb sp;She used
the force to pick me up by the back of my robes,  ;like a mother cathhound to its pup."now  ;that you've
'graduated' from the academe,&n bsp;I've decided to make you my apprentice". As I heard this I fel back to my
knees ' oh gods, shes gonna work  ;me to death'. "Now, now none of that... ". Suddenly I'm flying through
the air& nbsp;towards a stone wal . I came to&nbs p;my scenes soon enough to bound off the wal& nbsp; and reach for my
vibroblade... wh ich was gone. "looking for this?" I turned to wards my new master and wo and behold, < br> there was her blade. "hmm, no this won't do at al ". She grabbed it by the blade and shattered it over
h er knee. "W-what am I s-s-suppose to use now? I needed that"! "Ah, there's your problem always to
focused on needs and what&n bsp;must be done and when you have to do it... you'l never get to be a sit h lord
like that. By the way, that stutter, it's cute but its gotta go if I'm not going to be kil ing& nbsp;you".
That was my first day as the apprentice of Lord T ytho. Since then, I've been waiting in t hat same room,
swinging around the rema ins of my vibroblade... I named it Seplic,&nb sp;after an older initiate that I had ha d a
crush on. Before you assume an ything, no, I ended up having to kil&nbs p; him and feed him to a pack of
starved jawas. Don't ask. I've traine d, meditated, slept, briefly sang, til a voice on the speaker said I
soun ded nice, which promptly put an end to&n bsp;that ever happening again and spared by&n bsp;my self. There was
little to do and less way to tel time.
When the door final y opened a tinny cathar  ;boy. He ran up to me and I looked& nbsp;down to him."hel o
mama, I'm Davir,  ;Lord Tytho asked me to bring you to her.&nbs p;If you could follow me I'l " and  ;that's when i
grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground. The poor boy was so light I didn't need to u se the force
"tel me the directio ns to where she is... please" I cocked my&nbs p;head sideways before the last word. Under&n bsp;
my vice-like grip, he could barely manage to tel me to take two rights then a left at the first door." Thank< br> you very much" he dropped like a bag  ;of sand when I let him go, coughing&nbs p;heavily. He got up quickly and
ran&nb sp;to show me the way, but as he passed me,&nb sp;I jammed the broken end of Seplic int o his chest. His eyes
glossed over before he hit the  ;ground.
Her door was locked when I got there, of course she locked it, why&nbs p;wouldn't she lock the door after
sending&nb sp;for me? The speaker on key pad besides the door made a static sound as Tytho's voice cleared
out. "hel o dear, how  ;was your alone time and where is Davir? I&nb sp;told him not to let you kil him but that's
besides the point. If you'l drop the vibro-shank, I'l let yo u in".
A moment later and I was in her chambers. The room was mid-sized, with&n bsp;selves covered in blasters,
rifles and more&nb sp;than a dozen lightsabers. She sat at her desk at the opposite end of the room , clad in her
usual purple robes with the gaudy pink scarf around her neck.&nb sp;She gestured towards the chair facing
her. "Come, sit down, we have so much to  ;talk about". So we sat and I... endured her& nbsp;attempt at smal
talk."how was your room"? 'My prison cel was horrible'&nbs p;I thought, what I said was closer to " I-it was
lovely master, b-bb-but could w e not..." " I know it's a bit bare now, but I'm stil working on refurnishi ng
the place after I cleared out t he garbage from its last occupant". "Th-thank you& nbsp;ma-am, but...", " I've
been trying to decide what color to paint the room, what&nbs p;do you think of pink"? 'I think if you  ;paint my
room pink and leave me in  ;it for that long again, I'l go insane' . "Um... wel I'm not", "you'l lov e it, trust
me". 'Oh gods no'! By this time I gave up being part&n bsp;of the conversation and let my mind wonder,
inspection the strange decor a round the room. "Are you paying attention"?&n bsp;'oh shit' "yes master" my
eyes snapped back to her. "you're obviously not a fan of i nterior decoration, so lets skip to the business",
'final y'!
"Your first assi gnment is on Dromund Kaas, I need you to bring me the head of the man dalorian bounty
hunter that kil ed my&n bsp;last apprentice, I'l brief you on h is location when you arrive at the space  ;port".
"master"?," yes my apprentice"? "I'm going to need a new weapon". She sm iled broadly at this and
walked over to a shelf."Are you familiar with the use o f a blaster"?, "Y-yes ma-am, b-but...", " a&n bsp;lightsaber
of course, but I find that  ;in a pinch its nice to have something less expected". she lifted a h eavy blaster
pistol of of the shelf.&nb sp;"I'm thinking an Arkanian custom blaster w ould suit you best, I've tinkered with i t a
bit, improved energy cel , bea m splitter, oh and watch the trigger, it s a bit touchy". "Thank you ma-am,
but...". "Yes, yes I haven't& nbsp;forgotten, your lightsaber". She walked over& nbsp;to a display case and selected an
o dd piece. The lightsaber was rather ornate; D ura-steel straight grip, with an complex wire cup guard
over the handle made of a material that I didn't recognize."This is Laatste lied. I think you'l like its current augmentations, but you can change it as you see fit". She handed me the&nb sp;decorative hilt and I
activated it, after a short amount of fumbling. The th in, violet blade shot out, pulsating with&nbs p;a radiant
heat, but there was something&nb sp;else, a draining feeling. Lord Tytho turned&nbs p;her back to me,"Like most
lightsabers, it has three crystals, yours uses a compressed synth-crys tal for its color and composition as
wel as a Barab ingot to amplify its heat. What makes it special however is what caused its last&nb sp;user to
fal . It was constructed with an Afvoer as a power crystal. Usual y&n bsp;these are used for their color, but when
they're connected as the power source&nb sp;they don't just feed off the force ar ound you, they feed off you,
and y our opponents. As long as the blade is activated, it wil & nbsp;weaken you". I quickly closed the blade, I
could already feel fatigue from  ;the little I'd used it. "I'm hoping the use of wil lessen your reliance o n
lightsaber combat, though should it c ome to that, you don't need to worry abo ut the handle, the guard
is made o f songsteel, its expensive, but lightsabers won't damage it". Ma-am, m-maybe a less...", "No,&n bsp;
I'm sure it won't steal al of your strength before you finish your op ponent, have some faith in your self
dear. Besides the effects aren't permanent, you'l recover quick, now get to the shuttle, their goi ng to be
leaving soon and I want&n bsp;you on the next one out. We'l work on your outfit when you get back".& nbsp;"Um.. I
don't know how to leave, a nd whats wrong with my...". "Oh, yes that,&nb sp;roam around, you'l find it. Its the
big lift".
After hours of roaming, I foun d the lift, one of what seemed to b e hundreds by the way. The harsh desert
s un stung my eyes as I stepped out of&nbs p;the tomb that my master had concealed her stronghold in. As my
eyes adjusted to the bright light, I didn't see the spee der in time. The next thing I could  ;remember, the
red sky was spinning around&n bsp;a blue figure, a head with two lekku . As my eyes came into focus, I could&nb sp;see
a pair of violet eyes. Beneath th em were blue lips, which were moving as if to shout, but I could barely
he ar a whisper. Then that came into focus too." Miss, can ya' hear me"? I nodded s luggishly as I tried to
sit up and assess my situation. 'I must have hit m y head, but my leg felt... odd'.So I loo ked down. The
bone was out... far o ut. For reasons I stil don't understand,&nbs p;that was just the funniest thing, making me
laugh lightly before I fainted.
In  ;ways of places to wake up after something as freaky as that go, this place was pretty bad. It looked like
a ships med-bay. I figured this out by looking at&nbs p;the med-bay sign above the only door. The room was
mostly clean, with a& nbsp;Kolto tank across the room from the bed& nbsp;I was in. Not in, shackled to, I sh ook the
manacles to confirm the feeling. I looked down to  ;see that's not the only thing that changed&n bsp;about my
arms. There was also a kolto drip connecting to the vein  ;inside my right elbow. 'Enough putting it&nb sp;off, we
need to look down again'. My left leg was in a s plint made of scrap dura-steel and synth-cord . Just as I
was about to reach for my lightsaber, the door opened and a blu e twi'lek man walked in. I sat up as far as
my restraints would al ow and put&nbs p;on my best terrified act, which wasn't  ;entirely an act. "Now, now. no
need&nb sp;to be so scared miss, it's just that when ah' brought& nbsp;ya here these sorta fel out'a your robes".He
pul ed Laatste lied, and&nbs p;my blaster out of a rough canvas bag a t his waste. I shifted myself so I was sitting
my knees under my chin and back against the head board of the bed. The handcuffs prevented me& nbsp;from
hugging my knees like I usual y do when I'm stressed out. This sight clearly pained him, I could the guilt
written al over his fac e. "So ah' figure ya came here ta steal& nbsp;some old sith junk like us, right"? "I'm just
looking for stuff to buy food. Korriban is a hard place to live, I'm not looking for trouble, but it seem s to
find me fast enough". 'Damn it  ;thals, why didn't you loose the imperial&nbs p;accent'?! "So... hearin' you talk
now,&nbs p;sounds more like your an escaped slave...". 'oh good an out'. I turned up the t errified look from a
shaking to a corne red animal. "please! d-dd-don't take me back, th-they'l kil me... or worse"! " Now don'
ya worry, ah'd never do somethin'&nb sp;like that, those nerve burners in the acad emy are crazier than a rabid
tonkie".&n bsp;I relaxed back into the seat I was in before and again tried to hug my knees in, both to ease&n bsp;
myself and to drive home the guilt to get him to unshackle me. "let's get those off of you,&nb sp;then I can
show you around the ship... if your ready". "o-ok".
After he  ;unlocked the handcuffs, he picked me up  ;off the bed, "Let's not have ya put&nbs p;any weight on that
just yet". He  ;carried me through the ship, introducing me& nbsp;to the crew. We met Joeci, a Zebrak woman, in
the engine room.&nbs p;She was the mechanic. Farin, a massive  ;dark skinned man,who's job tittle was simply
put as 'the muscle' was found in the hal way&n bsp;leading to the mess hal and great&n bsp;room where I was
introduced to Petr a. "Wel hi there little lady". Petra&nb sp;leaned in so our faces where only a hands width
apart. Startled I shrank into my c arrier's arm and hugged him to distance my self from her. It's not that
she  ;was particularly frightening, she must have been& nbsp;four foot ten inches at the most. The&nb sp;strange thing
about Petra was that her eyes were like kaleidoscopes, the co lors kept moving and changing. Besides
this, she was clearly human. "Oh, come on&nbs p;Petra, she spooks easy"! " ah come on captain, don't you tel
me your no t liking being so close to her" She wigg led her eyebrows with a pointed look at how&n bsp;tight I
clung to him, so I flailed to get him to put me down.&nbs p;" Quit that, ya shouldn' have weight on&nbs p;that foot".
As he wrestled to keep me up, his hand landed on my chest. Realizing what he has grabbing, his eyes
went wide and his face went a deep shade of blue.
Three things happened in&n bsp;the next few seconds. First Petra fel&nbs p; down laughing, then I slapped him and he
dropped me. Searing pain lanced thro ugh my leg and and I screamed. I'd planed to do most of that,save
the accidental grop, b ut that high pitched scream, that was al  ; to real. Petra stopped laughing
immed iately and suddenly I was surrounded by the crew members I'd met. "Oh poodoo! Ah'm&nb sp;so sorry"!
I stayed there for a long& nbsp;moment trying to calm the pain. "Hey pet ra, go get the Kolto drip". 'Hmm,
m aybe?... no I need to be lucid'. "No... j-just give me a m-minute". " Didn' know she could t alk...". After
the pain went back down to a dul ache, I nodded and h e picked me up and set me on a  ;soft couch
bolted to the wal of the main room. "So now that ya know al&n bsp;'a our names, how 'bout ya tel   ;us yours"?
'think Thals! tel them anything, anything but the truth'!
"M-my name is& nbsp;Thalia, but I stil don't know your name". I looked at the tal twi'le k man that had hit me
with his speeder.& nbsp;"wel course you do, Everybody knows it, though they don' know its mine". He tur ns
and grins "I'm Captain Dasi'l the&nbs p;typhoon". He was obviously very proud of hi s name, as his crew al
cheered hearing it. 'Time for some revenge'. "Never heard of you".  ;I stated with the greatest sabacc face
possible. Of course I knew him, he  ;was infamous for his raid of the Grand Repub lic Station over Il um. His
ship wreaked havoc for al of ten minutes and l eft without a trace, save the looted sup er station and a
blue D marked on& nbsp;top.
At that remark he looked aghast&nbs p;at me. "Ya never heard ah' me? Guess the don' tel their slaves anythin'
at al ". Petra punched him in the  ;arm. "Why didn' ya tel me she was a slave to those monsters"? "Sorry
Pet ra, I'l give ya a heads up next ti me". Farin stepped forward and picked up  ;petra before the tiny
woman had a  ;chance to attack Dasi'l and quickly jogged of. I could& nbsp;stil hear Petra shouting something in&n bsp;
twi'lek even after they were gone. "So.. . now that we'er al familiar and t ha' such, where you headed
now? I doubt you wanna stay on korriban". "I've got& nbsp;an aunt on Dromund Kaas that I had& nbsp;planned to stay
with once I could s tow away on one of the leaving shuttles" . "Dromund Kaas? Are you crazy? An escaped&nb sp;
slave that wants to go to tha imperial capital?You'd be better of ju st walkin' back into the academy". I
fli nched at this, not just to keep up appearances but because I genuinely feared going& nbsp;back. Dasi'l sat
down on one side& nbsp;of me and put an arm around my  ;shoulders. "How about ah' make you an o ffer? Stay
on my ship fer a while, just til the sith can assume yer& nbsp;dead, then I'l take ya to Dromund& nbsp;Kaas if ya stil
wanna go. De al"? I looked up at him and I was about& nbsp;to say no, across the room Joeci in terrupted "Are
you serious Captain? She's afraid of her own shadow, we can't  ;keep her on the ship, she's dead weight"!&nb sp;
In that second my mind was made up.&n bsp;I'm gonna be a pirate for a while,&n bsp;just to spite her. I grabbed my
heav y blaster and Laatste lied out of the&nb sp;bag at Dosi'l's hip, jamming the pistol in to the holster under my
armpit and the&n bsp;lightsaber into the clip at my waste. "I' m no light weight, I can hold my own&nbs p;against most
sith acolytes"! 'damn it  ;Thals stop showing off'! Joeci grabbed the h andle of the scatter gun at her back&nbs p;
and I kept my hand on my blaster . " Hey! None ah that". He jumped in&nbs p;between us and held up his hands.
I could see her hand tense as she& nbsp;was about to draw, when Petra charged in and tackled Dasi'l, Joeci let
go of&nb sp;her scatter gun and bust up laughing.  ;I relaxed, 'not getting shot today, that's n ice'.
A while latter, after Petra was do ne, Dasi'l continued the tour of the shi p. The men's crew quarters were
to the left of the women's, where&n bsp;I'd stay. While I was told that the two were identical, I wasn't al owed
to go in the men's area. "It's not cause it's bette r than the other, its cause ah don' want to walk in on
people... mixin' like&nbs p;that on the ship". We walked past the& nbsp;Captains Quarters with out any comment, he&nb sp;
made a point of not looking at& nbsp;me for a bit after that. When we&nb sp;arrived at the cockpit, I looked from  ;the
hyper-drive control panel to the manual fighter controls." What kind of ship is this"? "This here is a
costume stock light Freighter class Anti-Orbital XS Shoi Tu,&nbs p;but I cal her Betona". "alright were& nbsp;next"?
"That would be tel ing Thal ia". He set me down in a chair, str apped me in, then seated himself and hit
the intercom button. "Ok everyone, strap&nb sp;down and hang on, we're goin' to ligh t speed".
After a few hours, we came&nbs p;out of hiperspace with Umbara in the d istance. I've heard rumors of the
strange&nbs p;Shadow world, that the people were highly&n bsp;advanced. So much so that if they applied their
technology to either side of the war effort, the winner would be decided . So far as I've heard both sides
d iplomatic and militaristic advances have been met& nbsp;with massive planet to orbit plasma bolts that sliced
through defensive shields as if&n bsp;they weren't there. Flag ships from both sides were met like this. No
warnings, n o communication. Just more space debris. Through&n bsp;the front window we could see the decimated shel s of ships and an corpses flouting bloated and gored. Petra entered the cockpit "Move
over Dasy, this is my job". "at's Captin Dasy to you". Petra&nbs p;took her place at the pilots chair, "yeah...&nbs p;
ri i ght". We dodged most of the& nbsp;space junk by inches and only got hit on ce, making Petra chuckle. The
rest of&n bsp;the crew came into the cockpit, "Oi Petra ! you tying to kil us"! Ferin's vo ice was booming and
loud, but not angry, he had more of a 'joking but I'l&n bsp; throttle you' kind of tone. "ya kno w she likes to have
'er fun Ferin, besides, she loves h erself to much to kil us al ". "Your damn right I do ".
this for the past five years since she had fi rst met her new master in the torture&nb sp;chambers of the Sith
Academe on Korr iban. That day she had been waiting for& nbsp;Overseer Rantic to interrogate the republic S IS
agent she had found while completing& nbsp;her final trial.
"Thalia! Why don't you have those tablets I sent you for and where are the other acolytes?" the overseer
demanded. "S-ss-Sir, I came back with the republic spy that& nbsp;Lord Tytho had asked me to bring in,&nbs p;she told
me she had already contacted you... and the other acolytes were destroyed...&nb sp;accidental y". At this Rantic
growled deep ly as he advanced on the short, dark haired,& nbsp;human girl."I've never even heard of thi s Sith.
So not only have you failed&nbs p;to complete your final trial but you i nsult me by lying to my face". She slowl y
shrank away from him as he strode  ;forward, fumbling with her practice vibroblade." b-bu-but I did wait
you told me to do, I've kil ed countless insurgents and recovered more artifacts than half of imperial
intel igence"!
" You've been told the rules, you've failed and now" The&nb sp;lightsaber in his hand buzzes to life as a
crackling red blade shoot out of the end."you die"! That's when she passed&nbs p;out.
She woke up in a cold, dark room... no, if I'm going to be tel ing my story I'm gonna do it as me. Taking in
third person is strange. I& nbsp;woke up in a cold dark room. I'm no t sure how long I had been there bu t as
soon as I stood up light  ;burst into the room from what seemed to be from everywhere."Final y, your
awak e". That soft feminine voice was al to familiar, it was the same one that had g uided me through my
trials and told&nbs p;me to find the spy in the slave quarte rs. Shielding my eyes from the light, I could barely
make out her outline. "Thal ia... close cal that time, try to complete your first task before you start on& nbsp;the
next, I hardly had time to enjoy  ;kil ing that overseer." "B-bb-but my lord, y -you told me it could wait".
"oh, yes, I did say that didn't I? Wel & nbsp;i said it could, not that it should . Listen closely dear, else you'l never
make it". By this time my eyes had adjusted and I could se e the scarlet eyes of the sith lord who had
taken it as her personal chal enge to make me a powe rful, wel informed and miserable acolyte.&nb sp;She used
the force to pick me up by the back of my robes,  ;like a mother cathhound to its pup."now  ;that you've
'graduated' from the academe,&n bsp;I've decided to make you my apprentice". As I heard this I fel back to my
knees ' oh gods, shes gonna work  ;me to death'. "Now, now none of that... ". Suddenly I'm flying through
the air& nbsp;towards a stone wal . I came to&nbs p;my scenes soon enough to bound off the wal& nbsp; and reach for my
vibroblade... wh ich was gone. "looking for this?" I turned to wards my new master and wo and behold, < br> there was her blade. "hmm, no this won't do at al ". She grabbed it by the blade and shattered it over
h er knee. "W-what am I s-s-suppose to use now? I needed that"! "Ah, there's your problem always to
focused on needs and what&n bsp;must be done and when you have to do it... you'l never get to be a sit h lord
like that. By the way, that stutter, it's cute but its gotta go if I'm not going to be kil ing& nbsp;you".
That was my first day as the apprentice of Lord T ytho. Since then, I've been waiting in t hat same room,
swinging around the rema ins of my vibroblade... I named it Seplic,&nb sp;after an older initiate that I had ha d a
crush on. Before you assume an ything, no, I ended up having to kil&nbs p; him and feed him to a pack of
starved jawas. Don't ask. I've traine d, meditated, slept, briefly sang, til a voice on the speaker said I
soun ded nice, which promptly put an end to&n bsp;that ever happening again and spared by&n bsp;my self. There was
little to do and less way to tel time.
When the door final y opened a tinny cathar  ;boy. He ran up to me and I looked& nbsp;down to him."hel o
mama, I'm Davir,  ;Lord Tytho asked me to bring you to her.&nbs p;If you could follow me I'l " and  ;that's when i
grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground. The poor boy was so light I didn't need to u se the force
"tel me the directio ns to where she is... please" I cocked my&nbs p;head sideways before the last word. Under&n bsp;
my vice-like grip, he could barely manage to tel me to take two rights then a left at the first door." Thank< br> you very much" he dropped like a bag  ;of sand when I let him go, coughing&nbs p;heavily. He got up quickly and
ran&nb sp;to show me the way, but as he passed me,&nb sp;I jammed the broken end of Seplic int o his chest. His eyes
glossed over before he hit the  ;ground.
Her door was locked when I got there, of course she locked it, why&nbs p;wouldn't she lock the door after
sending&nb sp;for me? The speaker on key pad besides the door made a static sound as Tytho's voice cleared
out. "hel o dear, how  ;was your alone time and where is Davir? I&nb sp;told him not to let you kil him but that's
besides the point. If you'l drop the vibro-shank, I'l let yo u in".
A moment later and I was in her chambers. The room was mid-sized, with&n bsp;selves covered in blasters,
rifles and more&nb sp;than a dozen lightsabers. She sat at her desk at the opposite end of the room , clad in her
usual purple robes with the gaudy pink scarf around her neck.&nb sp;She gestured towards the chair facing
her. "Come, sit down, we have so much to  ;talk about". So we sat and I... endured her& nbsp;attempt at smal
talk."how was your room"? 'My prison cel was horrible'&nbs p;I thought, what I said was closer to " I-it was
lovely master, b-bb-but could w e not..." " I know it's a bit bare now, but I'm stil working on refurnishi ng
the place after I cleared out t he garbage from its last occupant". "Th-thank you& nbsp;ma-am, but...", " I've
been trying to decide what color to paint the room, what&nbs p;do you think of pink"? 'I think if you  ;paint my
room pink and leave me in  ;it for that long again, I'l go insane' . "Um... wel I'm not", "you'l lov e it, trust
me". 'Oh gods no'! By this time I gave up being part&n bsp;of the conversation and let my mind wonder,
inspection the strange decor a round the room. "Are you paying attention"?&n bsp;'oh shit' "yes master" my
eyes snapped back to her. "you're obviously not a fan of i nterior decoration, so lets skip to the business",
'final y'!
"Your first assi gnment is on Dromund Kaas, I need you to bring me the head of the man dalorian bounty
hunter that kil ed my&n bsp;last apprentice, I'l brief you on h is location when you arrive at the space  ;port".
"master"?," yes my apprentice"? "I'm going to need a new weapon". She sm iled broadly at this and
walked over to a shelf."Are you familiar with the use o f a blaster"?, "Y-yes ma-am, b-but...", " a&n bsp;lightsaber
of course, but I find that  ;in a pinch its nice to have something less expected". she lifted a h eavy blaster
pistol of of the shelf.&nb sp;"I'm thinking an Arkanian custom blaster w ould suit you best, I've tinkered with i t a
bit, improved energy cel , bea m splitter, oh and watch the trigger, it s a bit touchy". "Thank you ma-am,
but...". "Yes, yes I haven't& nbsp;forgotten, your lightsaber". She walked over& nbsp;to a display case and selected an
o dd piece. The lightsaber was rather ornate; D ura-steel straight grip, with an complex wire cup guard
over the handle made of a material that I didn't recognize."This is Laatste lied. I think you'l like its current augmentations, but you can change it as you see fit". She handed me the&nb sp;decorative hilt and I
activated it, after a short amount of fumbling. The th in, violet blade shot out, pulsating with&nbs p;a radiant
heat, but there was something&nb sp;else, a draining feeling. Lord Tytho turned&nbs p;her back to me,"Like most
lightsabers, it has three crystals, yours uses a compressed synth-crys tal for its color and composition as
wel as a Barab ingot to amplify its heat. What makes it special however is what caused its last&nb sp;user to
fal . It was constructed with an Afvoer as a power crystal. Usual y&n bsp;these are used for their color, but when
they're connected as the power source&nb sp;they don't just feed off the force ar ound you, they feed off you,
and y our opponents. As long as the blade is activated, it wil & nbsp;weaken you". I quickly closed the blade, I
could already feel fatigue from  ;the little I'd used it. "I'm hoping the use of wil lessen your reliance o n
lightsaber combat, though should it c ome to that, you don't need to worry abo ut the handle, the guard
is made o f songsteel, its expensive, but lightsabers won't damage it". Ma-am, m-maybe a less...", "No,&n bsp;
I'm sure it won't steal al of your strength before you finish your op ponent, have some faith in your self
dear. Besides the effects aren't permanent, you'l recover quick, now get to the shuttle, their goi ng to be
leaving soon and I want&n bsp;you on the next one out. We'l work on your outfit when you get back".& nbsp;"Um.. I
don't know how to leave, a nd whats wrong with my...". "Oh, yes that,&nb sp;roam around, you'l find it. Its the
big lift".
After hours of roaming, I foun d the lift, one of what seemed to b e hundreds by the way. The harsh desert
s un stung my eyes as I stepped out of&nbs p;the tomb that my master had concealed her stronghold in. As my
eyes adjusted to the bright light, I didn't see the spee der in time. The next thing I could  ;remember, the
red sky was spinning around&n bsp;a blue figure, a head with two lekku . As my eyes came into focus, I could&nb sp;see
a pair of violet eyes. Beneath th em were blue lips, which were moving as if to shout, but I could barely
he ar a whisper. Then that came into focus too." Miss, can ya' hear me"? I nodded s luggishly as I tried to
sit up and assess my situation. 'I must have hit m y head, but my leg felt... odd'.So I loo ked down. The
bone was out... far o ut. For reasons I stil don't understand,&nbs p;that was just the funniest thing, making me
laugh lightly before I fainted.
In  ;ways of places to wake up after something as freaky as that go, this place was pretty bad. It looked like
a ships med-bay. I figured this out by looking at&nbs p;the med-bay sign above the only door. The room was
mostly clean, with a& nbsp;Kolto tank across the room from the bed& nbsp;I was in. Not in, shackled to, I sh ook the
manacles to confirm the feeling. I looked down to  ;see that's not the only thing that changed&n bsp;about my
arms. There was also a kolto drip connecting to the vein  ;inside my right elbow. 'Enough putting it&nb sp;off, we
need to look down again'. My left leg was in a s plint made of scrap dura-steel and synth-cord . Just as I
was about to reach for my lightsaber, the door opened and a blu e twi'lek man walked in. I sat up as far as
my restraints would al ow and put&nbs p;on my best terrified act, which wasn't  ;entirely an act. "Now, now. no
need&nb sp;to be so scared miss, it's just that when ah' brought& nbsp;ya here these sorta fel out'a your robes".He
pul ed Laatste lied, and&nbs p;my blaster out of a rough canvas bag a t his waste. I shifted myself so I was sitting
my knees under my chin and back against the head board of the bed. The handcuffs prevented me& nbsp;from
hugging my knees like I usual y do when I'm stressed out. This sight clearly pained him, I could the guilt
written al over his fac e. "So ah' figure ya came here ta steal& nbsp;some old sith junk like us, right"? "I'm just
looking for stuff to buy food. Korriban is a hard place to live, I'm not looking for trouble, but it seem s to
find me fast enough". 'Damn it  ;thals, why didn't you loose the imperial&nbs p;accent'?! "So... hearin' you talk
now,&nbs p;sounds more like your an escaped slave...". 'oh good an out'. I turned up the t errified look from a
shaking to a corne red animal. "please! d-dd-don't take me back, th-they'l kil me... or worse"! " Now don'
ya worry, ah'd never do somethin'&nb sp;like that, those nerve burners in the acad emy are crazier than a rabid
tonkie".&n bsp;I relaxed back into the seat I was in before and again tried to hug my knees in, both to ease&n bsp;
myself and to drive home the guilt to get him to unshackle me. "let's get those off of you,&nb sp;then I can
show you around the ship... if your ready". "o-ok".
After he  ;unlocked the handcuffs, he picked me up  ;off the bed, "Let's not have ya put&nbs p;any weight on that
just yet". He  ;carried me through the ship, introducing me& nbsp;to the crew. We met Joeci, a Zebrak woman, in
the engine room.&nbs p;She was the mechanic. Farin, a massive  ;dark skinned man,who's job tittle was simply
put as 'the muscle' was found in the hal way&n bsp;leading to the mess hal and great&n bsp;room where I was
introduced to Petr a. "Wel hi there little lady". Petra&nb sp;leaned in so our faces where only a hands width
apart. Startled I shrank into my c arrier's arm and hugged him to distance my self from her. It's not that
she  ;was particularly frightening, she must have been& nbsp;four foot ten inches at the most. The&nb sp;strange thing
about Petra was that her eyes were like kaleidoscopes, the co lors kept moving and changing. Besides
this, she was clearly human. "Oh, come on&nbs p;Petra, she spooks easy"! " ah come on captain, don't you tel
me your no t liking being so close to her" She wigg led her eyebrows with a pointed look at how&n bsp;tight I
clung to him, so I flailed to get him to put me down.&nbs p;" Quit that, ya shouldn' have weight on&nbs p;that foot".
As he wrestled to keep me up, his hand landed on my chest. Realizing what he has grabbing, his eyes
went wide and his face went a deep shade of blue.
Three things happened in&n bsp;the next few seconds. First Petra fel&nbs p; down laughing, then I slapped him and he
dropped me. Searing pain lanced thro ugh my leg and and I screamed. I'd planed to do most of that,save
the accidental grop, b ut that high pitched scream, that was al  ; to real. Petra stopped laughing
immed iately and suddenly I was surrounded by the crew members I'd met. "Oh poodoo! Ah'm&nb sp;so sorry"!
I stayed there for a long& nbsp;moment trying to calm the pain. "Hey pet ra, go get the Kolto drip". 'Hmm,
m aybe?... no I need to be lucid'. "No... j-just give me a m-minute". " Didn' know she could t alk...". After
the pain went back down to a dul ache, I nodded and h e picked me up and set me on a  ;soft couch
bolted to the wal of the main room. "So now that ya know al&n bsp;'a our names, how 'bout ya tel   ;us yours"?
'think Thals! tel them anything, anything but the truth'!
"M-my name is& nbsp;Thalia, but I stil don't know your name". I looked at the tal twi'le k man that had hit me
with his speeder.& nbsp;"wel course you do, Everybody knows it, though they don' know its mine". He tur ns
and grins "I'm Captain Dasi'l the&nbs p;typhoon". He was obviously very proud of hi s name, as his crew al
cheered hearing it. 'Time for some revenge'. "Never heard of you".  ;I stated with the greatest sabacc face
possible. Of course I knew him, he  ;was infamous for his raid of the Grand Repub lic Station over Il um. His
ship wreaked havoc for al of ten minutes and l eft without a trace, save the looted sup er station and a
blue D marked on& nbsp;top.
At that remark he looked aghast&nbs p;at me. "Ya never heard ah' me? Guess the don' tel their slaves anythin'
at al ". Petra punched him in the  ;arm. "Why didn' ya tel me she was a slave to those monsters"? "Sorry
Pet ra, I'l give ya a heads up next ti me". Farin stepped forward and picked up  ;petra before the tiny
woman had a  ;chance to attack Dasi'l and quickly jogged of. I could& nbsp;stil hear Petra shouting something in&n bsp;
twi'lek even after they were gone. "So.. . now that we'er al familiar and t ha' such, where you headed
now? I doubt you wanna stay on korriban". "I've got& nbsp;an aunt on Dromund Kaas that I had& nbsp;planned to stay
with once I could s tow away on one of the leaving shuttles" . "Dromund Kaas? Are you crazy? An escaped&nb sp;
slave that wants to go to tha imperial capital?You'd be better of ju st walkin' back into the academy". I
fli nched at this, not just to keep up appearances but because I genuinely feared going& nbsp;back. Dasi'l sat
down on one side& nbsp;of me and put an arm around my  ;shoulders. "How about ah' make you an o ffer? Stay
on my ship fer a while, just til the sith can assume yer& nbsp;dead, then I'l take ya to Dromund& nbsp;Kaas if ya stil
wanna go. De al"? I looked up at him and I was about& nbsp;to say no, across the room Joeci in terrupted "Are
you serious Captain? She's afraid of her own shadow, we can't  ;keep her on the ship, she's dead weight"!&nb sp;
In that second my mind was made up.&n bsp;I'm gonna be a pirate for a while,&n bsp;just to spite her. I grabbed my
heav y blaster and Laatste lied out of the&nb sp;bag at Dosi'l's hip, jamming the pistol in to the holster under my
armpit and the&n bsp;lightsaber into the clip at my waste. "I' m no light weight, I can hold my own&nbs p;against most
sith acolytes"! 'damn it  ;Thals stop showing off'! Joeci grabbed the h andle of the scatter gun at her back&nbs p;
and I kept my hand on my blaster . " Hey! None ah that". He jumped in&nbs p;between us and held up his hands.
I could see her hand tense as she& nbsp;was about to draw, when Petra charged in and tackled Dasi'l, Joeci let
go of&nb sp;her scatter gun and bust up laughing.  ;I relaxed, 'not getting shot today, that's n ice'.
A while latter, after Petra was do ne, Dasi'l continued the tour of the shi p. The men's crew quarters were
to the left of the women's, where&n bsp;I'd stay. While I was told that the two were identical, I wasn't al owed
to go in the men's area. "It's not cause it's bette r than the other, its cause ah don' want to walk in on
people... mixin' like&nbs p;that on the ship". We walked past the& nbsp;Captains Quarters with out any comment, he&nb sp;
made a point of not looking at& nbsp;me for a bit after that. When we&nb sp;arrived at the cockpit, I looked from  ;the
hyper-drive control panel to the manual fighter controls." What kind of ship is this"? "This here is a
costume stock light Freighter class Anti-Orbital XS Shoi Tu,&nbs p;but I cal her Betona". "alright were& nbsp;next"?
"That would be tel ing Thal ia". He set me down in a chair, str apped me in, then seated himself and hit
the intercom button. "Ok everyone, strap&nb sp;down and hang on, we're goin' to ligh t speed".
After a few hours, we came&nbs p;out of hiperspace with Umbara in the d istance. I've heard rumors of the
strange&nbs p;Shadow world, that the people were highly&n bsp;advanced. So much so that if they applied their
technology to either side of the war effort, the winner would be decided . So far as I've heard both sides
d iplomatic and militaristic advances have been met& nbsp;with massive planet to orbit plasma bolts that sliced
through defensive shields as if&n bsp;they weren't there. Flag ships from both sides were met like this. No
warnings, n o communication. Just more space debris. Through&n bsp;the front window we could see the decimated shel s of ships and an corpses flouting bloated and gored. Petra entered the cockpit "Move
over Dasy, this is my job". "at's Captin Dasy to you". Petra&nbs p;took her place at the pilots chair, "yeah...&nbs p;
ri i ght". We dodged most of the& nbsp;space junk by inches and only got hit on ce, making Petra chuckle. The
rest of&n bsp;the crew came into the cockpit, "Oi Petra ! you tying to kil us"! Ferin's vo ice was booming and
loud, but not angry, he had more of a 'joking but I'l&n bsp; throttle you' kind of tone. "ya kno w she likes to have
'er fun Ferin, besides, she loves h erself to much to kil us al ". "Your damn right I do ".