The Dark Lord

Chapter 6: The favor

Something was wrong. This wasn't Ryloth. I was in a Bacta tank. Why was I in a Bacta tank? I could see some movement outside the tank, through the thick blue Bacta fluid. There was a sound, like a beep of a machine, and the tank started emptying of the liquid. When it was fully empty the glass walls came down and I stumbled on the ground, falling on my knees due to being too weak to stand. I also noticed that I was wearing nothing but my underpants.

"Wh-where am I?" I asked when I could speak, and looked up to see someone I didn't expect to see. Shay, Lord Koris' Apprentice. "Damn, man, you got real angry, didn't you?" He said with an amused voice. "W-wha..?" I was still confused, my head was spinning, and I was weak. "Shay..?"

I last saw Shay when I was packing to leave the orbital base. I never thought I'd see him again, or if I did, I'd have to kill him. Looked like he had the upper hand here. I was lost, unarmed, and he seemed to be right at home wherever it was we were. This place looked like a medical facility, Imperial in design, much like my Fury. My Fury. Where was my Fury?

"Where am I, Shay?" I asked Shay, curious and confused. I hated being like that, not being in control. "A Star Destroyer of mine, called the Deathfang." Shay replied. "A beautiful ship." I grew more afraid at his mentions; Deathfang was Lord Koris' ship. And Koris was a very good friend of Kokkus, my late Master's brother.

I opened my mouth to speak again, but Shay silenced me by handing me a set of clothes, a black Sith robe, which I then put on. Shay didn't seem to mind. I didn't think too much of it, I was grateful to get the clothes, little else. But I was still curious.

"Follow me, Cormac. Or do I call you Darth now?" Shay said and started walking. I walked alongside him through the corridors which seemed to widen with every turn we took. "I haven't given it any thought. Been busy." I said to him, starting to think. When a Master dies, their Apprentice becomes a Darth. That's what I was taught, at least. "I noticed. Nice ship you've got there." Shay pointed out, to which I nodded, still in thought. Did I want to be called Darth? And if so, what name did I take?

"So what have you been up to, Cormac?" Shay asked me as we passed a small team of soldiers. They weren't Stormtroopers, as we weren't affiliated with the Galactic Empire. They wore black combat armor and carried a blaster rifle. I wasn't sure of the model. One of them had a yellow-red stud on his chest, signifying he was the team leader.

"Errands. Things that needed to be done." I replied, to which he said, clearly knowing me too well: "Got drunk and hooked up with some chick, I take it?" I laughed a little to his statement; he was too right for me to deny it. "Yes, among other things."

We chatted for a while longer until we came to a large door that didn't open when we were close to it. Instead, Shay put his hand on a scanner on the side of the door. It slid open and revealed a small armory, the walls of which were lined with shelves of blaster rifles, pistols and electrostaffs. I also noticed several cube-shaped metal crates, each side as long as a man was tall. I assumed they held ammunition and power cells for the weapons, but as Shay opened one of them, I saw smaller boxes, made of metal and decorated with Sith symbols - lightsaber cases.

Shay took a large case made of red metal with weird and menacing-looking Sith symbols that I assumed housed a saberstaff. Howewer when Shay flipped the lid open, inside was Darth Rehual's long-hilted lightsaber, the one I had taken as my own, along with my Jedi lightsabers, crammed in the box that was only made for one weapon. He closed the box and placed it in my hands.

"What's this for?" I asked, now even more confused. He wouldn't have given me my weapons if he wanted me dead, but it made no sense to keep me alive either. "You're gonna have to face my Master, Cormac. I can't stop it. Koris is an asshole, and I hate him. But I can't off him, so you're gonna need to do that for me."

I looked at Shay like he was an idiot. "I'm not going to do your dirty work for you, Shay." He looked upset. "I saved your life. Koris will torture you for information and then bring you to Kokkus. I gave you weapons so you could kill him, not to set you up. Your ship is in the main hangar. Here's a holocomm with the data you need." And he handed me a holocommunicator too. "What if I fail?" I asked, slightly afraid at having to face a Sith Lord of such power.

"You don't get a choice." was his reply as he led me to Koris' chambers.