Star Wars: Power of the Dark Side
Chapter XXII: Dismantling Dread

"My master, I have completed the task and I retrieved the relic that will aid me in the death of Darth Venator." Vesper explained kneeling in front of Scorpan. The gargoyle nodded and wrenched his grip looser around his staff. The noble looking sith lord merely gave a stern but sympathetic face in reply, analyzing her and her words to see any lying undertow. Something that Vesper could understand.

It had taken her half a day to trek from the tunnels back to the library, all the way she could not believe that she had brought herself to this point. She never thought she would reach this peak. She never thought that such a task would weigh so heavily on her. Not that she was saddened, more of guilt. Everytime she mustered the small amount of courage to kill this sith all she could see was Applejack's face. Something that disturbed her beyond any end. Her haunting image would appear in front of her eyes, as clear as day. Her wounds present and fresh and she would pacify any thought of murder or death of another pony.

The thought strangulated her and using the force she suppressed that insane image and buried it deep, so that if it would return she would be prepared for it.

Scorpan's eyes lingered on the hilt that rested on her hip. He asked, "What, pray tell, is the purpose of the lightsaber?"

Vesper did not glance at the grotesque hilt and merely answered nobly and proudly, "When I was finished with Venator I would put the Kaiburr crystal inside the lightsaber and I would be that much closer to my goal."

Scorpan offered no emotional reaction on his face. Instead he looked upon her kneeling form in indifference, though his eyes were fierce and saw determination within his apprentice. Vesper had no doubt that she would become everything that Scorpan had hoped for. They discussed her in the old throne room, night settling and the silver moonlight coiling on the cracked granite floor. Vesper's light airy feeling never faded as the weight of the holocron grew on, it seemed as though it knew what she was doing. She had full confidence that she had the power necessary to defeat Venator, but the question remains of: how does one kill a dead pony?

She shook her thoughts as Scorpan circled around her and explained, "You have shaped your destiny, while the paths has been laid before you, you forge ahead regardless of the foliage. I must say you are quite impressive to teach, as you do most of the teaching yourself. I merely dictate where you might go."

He paused as he moved his attention to one of the slits in the wall and gestured to it, "Your next destination is to the Frozen North. It is in there that the second Kaiburr crystal lies. Be auick and swift, the more time you spend here fighting Venator, your enemies move closer and closer to their goal of mutually assured destruction."

Vesper shook her feelings of fear and doubt as they were emotions she rarely felt. She procurred the holocron as she had noticed he finished talking. The holocron hovered, gently levitating a few feet off the ground. The familiar low hum of energy inside become more present and physical. Vesper looked to Scorpan for his approval. Scorpan nodded and said, "It is time for you to embrace your destiny. It is time for you to truly know what it means to be Sith'ari."

Scorpan's form began to diminish and to dissolve into dust, as it did he explained, "Remember: When Venator no longer lives in the afterlife or in the physical realm, move your advances towards the Frozen North. It is there you will find what will continue you on the course of destiny. May the Force be with you."

She nodded to her master and watched as his form disappeared into the shadows of the ruins. Vesper lowered her head, the silence of the room overtaking her senses. A deep breath left her nostrils with ease. For once, she could breathe without the weight of her life in other hooves, expectation tightening a grip around her throat. Now, her lungs were open and her mind flooding with knowledge wisdom. Standing up she whispered to herself, "He is after me because of what I am."

She pulled out the holocron with her magic and looked at the churning dark side ridden object and commented, "And what I am is his prophetic end. It will be from me that I will deliver him from the chains of the afterlife and I will unleash my powers. No holding back, no restraints."

She cracked her neck and took in a calming breath, hovering it in front of her she summoned dark side energy and it crackled and spurred off of the crystalline surface. In her mind she envisioned the same place that she had been summoned to and willed her conscience to the pocket existence within the holocron. In a flash she felt the air grow colder, an icy grip that chilled all the way to her bones.

Opening her eyes she saw meditating in the center was the heretic himself. The self proclaimed Sith'ari. His robes fluttering slightly in the draft. Her hoofsteps echoed as she stepped closer with more passion and anger than she had ever felt. She had never felt such vengeance as to the ones that broke her and tricked her into being apart of his sick and twisted game.

He spoke clearly and loudly, "I can sense you apprentice, you have gained a significant amount of power."

Unmoving he continued as she crept closer to the center, readying a stance to open a strike, "Have you been around JedI? You seem to reek of hubris."

Vesper remained quiet and simply tightened her gaze on the sith lord. His unwitting confidence and pride bled into reality from his stern hooded face. He gave a simple devilish smile, "I trust that you have done as I have asked?"

"I am no longer bound to your strict set of rules," Vesper growled, "I no longer follow your mind set and I am not another one of your pawn pieces. This game has ended. It ends here and now."

He smirked evilly, "It most certainly will, and it will not be me I assure you. While you carry a substantial amount of power, you are in no way my equal. If you honestly think that I will hold back then you are sorely mistaken. You have failed as my apprentice. First you go behind my back and seek a new master, next you reconnect a link to Twilight, and lastly you would dare accept the ways of the Jedi. You are weaker than I thought."

Vesper clenched her teeth and growled, "And you are one to talk, you were manipulating me just so you can possess my body and take the Kaiburr crystals for yourself."

How he kept his reaction hidden she had no idea. He pulled his hood back and revealed the stern face of a stallion. Scarred on one side and a large crescent tattoo on the other. The marking was archaic and appeared a blood red. His coat was pale and his mane a dark black silver. He chuckled, "To think I took you as a common fool. Yes, my naive apprentice, I was."

"Why?" Vesper had a pretty good reason why but she wanted to hear it herself.

Venator shifted his weight and replied, leading with his right hoof, "Because I have witnessed the destruction that had come here before. I saw with my own eyes the chaos brought upon us all that day. I had spent years, if not decades of living in constant fear. I took up powers that yielded power overwhelming and we fought back the invaders. But they will return, I have seen it, they will come raining fire and darkness. With the Kaiburr crystals in my hooves, we might have a chance."

Vesper grumbled with all the fury of a threatened animal, "You are nothing but a mad pony with only madder ideals. You would be torn to shreds if you let the power of the Kaiburr overtake you."

Venator unsheathed his lightsaber, a horrifying echoing hiss ignited from the hilt and a sinister grin crossed his face as he chuckled, amusing himself, "We shall see soon enough, apprentice."

With lightning fast reflexes he lifted off of the ground in a hover and dashed his way towards Vesper. Dodging the strike under him she unsheathed her blade and it lit the room in a flash of blinding blue light and a crack of thunder. Lightning spurting and sparking on the surface of the cursed dark blade. She stood up and flourished the weapon in her hooves, already she calculated the spells that were readily in her arsenal.

Spinning, still hovering, recovered from the strike and thrusted towards Vesper. Parrying the strike, the blades released a cacophonous clash. Steel upon laser plasma was not a comforting sound, nor did she expect it to. She had done it time and time again, but this time it had felt different. She felt more in control of her strikes and blows, as well as her stance and defense. It was odd but she paid no mind to it, all that mattered was finally ending the miserable pony that tried to manipulate her to do things she would otherwise would not do.

The Twilight that entered in his apprenticeship had died, she knew that even now. Even after sifting through the ashes of her former self, and gathering up what she could, she knew that she would never be the same again. She had severed her horn, torn her friend to shreds, severed all ties to her former life, joined a cult she had known nothing about. All for what, to protect Equestria? She could do that on her own, and her friends. What had compelled her to join forces with a psychotic mad pony?

In a wide sweeping strike, he burst forth still hovering. Vesper ducked out of the way, rolling to the side. Concentrating on her new horn, she released a burst of magic to try and knock him off balance to get a better advantage on him. A ring of bright blue magic released and a thunderous boom erupted in the air around the two adversaries. Venator turned and was slightly braced by the echoing boom but he did not lose a step. He raised his lightsaber and the hissing of the blade came crashing towards Vesper.

Parrying the blow she glanced the strike away. She reeled back and watched as he slowly advanced towards her, his deep voice reverberating, "You know nothing of the struggles the Sith had to endure for centuries. The amount of stirring and festering hatred that I had to live with trapped in a holocron. The Jedi have overtaken the land of Equestria and ruled it with a harmonious hoof that cursed the ponies inside the country. You amongst them, you will never be a true sith."

She brandished her blade and tightened her grip on the leather bound hilt, through grit teeth she barked, "I never wanted to be a sith, I wanted to protect my friends."

He snickered, "How noble. I digress, my assumption was not mistaken that you have been kissed with the curse of friendship and light. Light that has been dark for sometime now. You cannot beat the coming enemy with friendship, something that you seem to never forget. I guess that I do not need you alive really, I can always possess a dead corpse."

Vesper charged, allowing her hatred guide her blade. The lightning crackled and spurted, tongues of electricity dancing on the metal surface and as it clashed with the lightsaber the tongues of lightning leapt to the spectral figure. The attack seemed to have done some damage but she could not see any sort of reaction from him. Only a flinch of his arm, slightly. The robes tattered and tore at the intensity of the lightning. Vesper pushed the figure and sent him back.

Raising a free hoof he pulled it back and before he could unleash his torrent of force lightning she raised her hooves across her face and summoned a shield of pure magic. The lightning passed over the magical surface with ease, she pulled her hooves back at the opportune moment. Dust kicked up, her back to the far wall.

Trying to catch her off guard he raised his lightsaber and unleashed a flurry of swift strikes. Each was well calculated and the blows were strong and he let up on nothing. His strength still all there, not even a shred of fatigue phased him. Her on the other hoof, she could already feel her muscles tighten from the over exertion. Stepping back she narrowly dodged the last of the flurry, pointing her sword at him she willed the dancing electricity to strike out and it unleashed a wild wind of sparks and bolts. The strike connected to the spectral figure's chest, he seized for a moment and coughed slightly at the amount of magic and force she had willed into the strike. He shook his head, before he could regain his wits Vesper thrust deep inside the spectral figure's chest. Piercing through ribs and lung. Vesper watched a black ichorous substance leak out and spill over her hooves.

Once more, Venator chuckled and bashed the side of his hoof against her temple. Dazed she narrowly parried the quickened strike from Venator's lightsaber. His strength now becoming insurmountable, she was growing weak. Venator smiled, "Such weakness. Still you allow your physical form to anchor you down and tether you to mortal throes. Heh, I think I might enjoy killing you. Another lamb to the slaughter."

He knocked her sword away, her grip still holding firm, following up with a diagonal slash to her chest. The armour absorbed the blow, but he managed to niche her chin and cheek. She yelped in pain and in her reeling he cut her thigh causing her to crumble to the ground in pain. He raised his lightsaber up ready to come down and decapitate her.

In a bright flash she disappeared from sight and blinked a few feet away from Venator. The sith lord seemed perplexed and gave her ample time to recover from her wounds. She called upon the dark side to do anything for the wounds. She knew that it was not particularly known for its healing but numbing the pain anything was better then feeling as though she was cut with lava. She called upon it and she felt a slight tingle around the open area. She breathed more calmly and faced the dead sith lord readying once more for the fight.

As he had taunted her and spoke at her she fed off of his hubris and felt revitalization, all of her feelings culminating as she pushed back strikes equal in strength to his. She felt a fire erupt in her veins. Igniting a power insideshe never thought she had. All the pain, all the suffering, all the agony she had to endure for this pony. The spirits she had devoured to fight alongside her, offered her their strength.

The air felt raw with a mix of arcane energy and force. It felt heavy and her eyes intensified as she counterstruck against the spectral force user. Sending him back hovering, Vesper growled, "No, I am not weak. I am strong. I hold the powers of both magic and the Force. You are narrow minded and offer nothing for the Sith. You hold them tethered to your old ways, I will usher them in a new era of power that no one can ever imagine. In the name of both the sith and reason-"

In a flourish of bright sparks and lightning she burst his defenses and with each blow severly weakened the shield in place around him. When nothing remained he fell back to the ground on his hooves and sent him back. He parried her strikes but was barely keeping in time with her wild and chaotic strikes, not out of desperation and inexperience purposeful so that he could never find a niche in her stance.

His back oressed against the stone wall. With a strong blow she knocked him off balance of his stance, his lightsaber falling out of his hooves. With a flick of her hoof the hilt danced across the air and flew into her open hoof. Reignitjng the blade she slashed his chest with her sith blade and the lightsaber. Not allowing any more words to be said, this was a pony that deserved no mercy.

He crumpled to the ground with a dull thud. There were a few moments of silence, in those moments of silence while the magic and the force energy subsided she felt a weight like no other lift from her shoulders. She lowered her sword and the lightsaber. At closer inspection, it was a very intricate hilt of various metals and sharp edges. The archaic hilt felt nice in her grasp, light and yet offered deadly efficiency. She sheathed her sith war blade and held the lightsaber out.

She moved to the center of the room as a disembodied and unrecognizable voice echoed, "Cen...ter..."

She obeyed the entity and she stood there. She could not explain the feeling but she felt as if she knew exactly what to do. It was a stranged feeling, it was as if she felt her actions were not her own. She closed her eyes and lowered her head focusing on the living force energy that emanated from her. The hilt lifted fromher hoof and hovered ahead of her. The disembodied voice came clearer,

"You...you are...the Inheritor of the...Kaiburr...it is through you...my power...lives on...wield it...with...discretion...keep your mind...balanced...always..."

She felt the words speak to her very soul. She opened her eyes and lifted her head, the metal of her armour now sticking slightly to her fur and skin. She saw a large maroon crystal levitate down into the disassembled lightsaber hilt. The faintly glowing crystal lowered slowly into a silver chamber, settling nicely inside. The voice spoke once more, "The...crystal...accepts you...seize...what...is yours...Sith'ari."

Calmly willing the pueces of the hilt together the pieces clanked and clicked as they fit together. Fitting tightly together, the final click resounded in the air and she lowered her head once more and ignited the blade, she felt the force powers inside of her more clearer, more potent than ever before.

Her voice came easier and more clearly than it ever could have, there was a slight rumble to it as she spoke, "It has begun. The Sith'ari comes."

Author's Note

Sorry this update took so long