Sianid strode into the Dark Council chambers with confidence, and no small dose of anger. After all these years, the traitor Zarvell had finally over-extended and exposed himself. She had already won the power of Lord Kallig and was learning to control it--and the painful sensation that came with using it--better every day. Now she looked forward to bringing the full weight of the Empire down on little Zarvell and having her final victory.

Many of the other Council members were already present, including Darths Acina, Aruk, Mortis, Rictus, Ravage, and Vowrawn. As she took her seat, holos of Darths Marr, Acharon, and Zhorrid appeared in their respective places.

"My fellow members of the Dark Council," she began, seizing the initiative, "there is a traitor to the Empire, one who has acted openly against this Council and the Empire, and I seek the Council's judgement so that this threat can be eliminated."

The others in the room looked back and forth to each other, clearly surprised at her statement.

Darth Mortis spoke up. "Darth Nox, that is precisely why we are here. I must say, your . . . candor . . . in this matter is a refreshing surprise. Your confession makes this process much more straight-forward, and earns you a stay of your sentence."

"My WHAT?!?" Sianid yelled, incredulously.

Darth Rictus was already manipulating the controls of a datapad as he spoke. "One of my operatives was a witness to this incident involving the use of unauthorized sorcery, and . . . well, it speaks for itself."

In the center of the room, a holoprojector in the ceiling came to life displaying an image of Sianid herself.

"Khem, Zash, Ashara, my destiny is about to be fulfilled. I created this girl to be the flawless vessel for my ultimate power, power which I will now claim, the kind of power that will allow me to challenge the rest of the Dark Council or even the Emperor himself, should I choose it."

"THIS is my victory. And all of you will be rewarded--appropriately--for your roles in making it happen."

"The entire incident is recorded." Darth Rictus continued. "There are lesser charges to be brought involving your inter-Sphere interference and the unauthorized access of Sphere of Mysteries secrets, but they pale in comparison to your documented use of what is clearly the forbidden ancient Ritual of Lifeforce Walking."

"This is an outrage!" Sianid yelled. "Why I should..."

"Should WHAT?" Darth Mortis interrupted. "Defy this Council? By all means, prove the accusations TRUE. It makes our jobs much simpler to have unanimous consent."

For the first time since entering the room, Sianid's confidence was shaken, and she started to feel trapped.

"I believe I have a solution which will satisfy everyone here." Darth Rictus said. "I have a new . . . associate . . . one who is already a proper Darth . . ."

The subtle insult was not lost on Sianid. She had NOT already been a Darth when she defeated Darth Thanaton and had to be promoted on the spot--over the objections of some--in order to take her seat on the Dark Council.

". . . who is willing to challenge Darth Nox for her seat in trial-by-combat, according to the ancient tradition of Wrath'chan'boo, if the Council will accept this course of action."

Around the room, the various Council members looked to each other, and nodded their approval.

Darth Rictus turned to Sianid. "Do you accept?"

Sianid's rage only built up higher, as she started putting the pieces together of what was happening here. This new 'associate' could only be Zarvell. This situation had all the markings of his sort of manipulation, which she knew all too well. Plus, it was obvious enough that he was the one responsible for the holo-recording.

The notion of Zarvell setting foot in this chamber was a mockery of all she stood for.

The only part of this that seemed off . . . it was VERY unlike him to directly challenge her this way.

"I am unfamiliar with this tradition." Sianid responded cautiously.

"Of course you are." Darth Mortis said with a hint of contempt. "The challenger and the accused will take turns. One will attack the other, using only one single attack. The attacked will only use defensive measures, taking no offensive action whatsoever. The last one standing is the victor. If the challenger wins, your seat on the council is forfeit. If you win, you are cleared of all charges."

Sianid's feelings of being trapped were quickly falling away, as this ritualized battle gave her a way out. If she played this right, she could even expose Zarvell for the fraud of a Sith that he really is. "And who goes first?" she asked.

"As a sitting Dark Council member, you have the right of first attack." Mortis answered, with a bit of disappointment in his voice for having to admit it.

"Then I accept." Sianid answered. "Bring in this challenger, and I'll show you what he really is."

Darth Rictus signaled the guards outside the chamber, and all eyes turned toward the opening doors, as Sianid stood and walked toward the chamber's center.


"Zarvell...." Sianid said in greeting.


...to the young Sith Pureblood woman who entered.


The Sith looked Sianid up and down. "This is your all-powerful Darth Nox?"

Sianid was a little disappointed that it wasn't Zarvell after all, but at least it confirmed that she was right about Zarvell being too much of a coward to confront her directly.

Darth Ravage spoke up. "The challenge has been issued and accepted. You may begin. And let us at last put an end to this . . . error." Sianid caught the irony in Ravage's voice, as he was clearly referring to Sianid's placement on the Council--which he had opposed--and not to the charges being pressed against her.

Sianid looked her Sith opponent in the eye. It was time to end this and prove her power to this Council. "It is time for you to die."

As Sianid began summoning the power of the Death Strike, the Sith woman looked indifferent, even bored. Could she really be that ignorant of what was about to befall her?

And just as Sianid released the attack, she saw a bright, white/purple pulse of Force energy emanating from the Sith. This Sith had the protective relic!

The attack hit the Sith woman dead-on, and clearly caused her a lot of pain. But she refused to cry out, and soon the pain passed, and she was standing tall, looking defiant. Sianid felt a lingering tinge of numbness herself as a result of the attack.

The Sith woman reached into a pocket on her belt, pulled out the relic, and casually dropped it on the ground behind her. "Was that your best?" she asked condescendingly, for all to hear.

She approached Sianid casually as if to say something to her.

...and slapped her in the face . . . not even hard enough for it to sting.

"There. Now it's your turn again." she said to Sianid with a smile, turning and walking away, leaving her back to Sianid. "Do try to actually harm me this time."

Darth Zhorrid's giggle was heard throughout the entire chamber.

Enraged, Sianid wasted no time resummoning the Death Strike. Without the relic, she would be defenseless. And to dare insulting and turning her back on a member of the Dark Council in this way!

But this time, something was different. As Sianid summoned the dark energy a second time, that tingling sensation from the first attack increased in intensity right along with it, transforming into a painful electrical charge that surrounded her like a bubble and coursed through her, threatening to disrupt her own nervous system and causing the second-worst pain she'd ever felt.

With her hands shaking uncontrollably, and quickly losing the ability to even stand, she prematurely released the energy at the Sith woman, hoping it would do some damage.

Instead, it reflected back off of the dark electrical bubble that surrounded her, which kept all that energy contained within. She couldn't help but cry out in pain.

In a moment, the pain passed as the energy finished discharging. She felt weak and wounded.

And that bitch of a Sith still had her back turned, having done nothing at all in her own defense.

"This is the one who killed Darth Thanaton? Really?" the Sith said, her back still turned. This caused an audible murmur around the room among the other Dark Council members. Sianid understood the insult all too well...even though she had defeated Thanaton in these very chambers, it was in fact Darth Mortis who delivered the killing blow.

The Sith reached into a pocket on the other side of her belt, and pulled out another, similar relic. Like the first, she casually dropped it on the ground before turning and approaching Sianid again.

"If I were you, I'd try something else." she whispered, just loud enough for Sianid to hear. "Did you really think that Tulak Hord didn't craft a way of preventing others from using that attack on him? Well...don't worry...on a human the effect will only last a few . . . decades."

And when she was close enough, the Sith looked Sianid in the eye.

. . . and spit on her.
"Last chance . . . ." she said aloud, tauntingly.

"These theatrics are pointless!" Darth Marr said angrily. "I have a war to attend to."

"No . . . actually . . . they are not." Darth Mortis said, stroking his beard in thought. "As far as I'm aware, it hasn't been done in centuries . . . but there is a provisional rule wherein a challenger who survives three attacks--without counterattacking in turn--is to be declared the victor."

The other Darths were looking back and forth at each other, each with their own particular reaction to this new revelation. Most were surprised. Darth Zhorrid looked excited, while Darth Marr just looked impatient. Only Darth Rictus was sitting back, smiling, as if he'd known all along.

Sianid's anger was bubbling over now, including the rising sensation of the red-hot flame burning within her. And Darth Rictus' game was finally starting to fall into place. From the beginning, this had been about goading her into demonstrating her power to the Dark Council, which would give undeniable proof that she had engaged in the ritual Lord Kallig had taught her. The Sith girl was just an expendable pawn to be sacrificed to that end.

But now--thanks to this ridiculous technicality--if she didn't use her power now, she would lose her seat on the Council to this impudent little thing. That was the play that so perfectly Zarvell's style that he might as well have autographed it.

Well . . . if it's a choice between killing or NOT killing this Sith girl who had repeatedly insulted her . . . well . . . THAT was EASY. She thought back to how she had killed . . . no, destroyed Zarvell's apprentice and how VERY GOOD that had felt. If they wanted a demonstration of power, they'll get one.

Looking over at the Sith girl, Sianid could see that her demeanor was no longer so cocky like before. She was actually watching carefully this time, lightsaber in hand, taking it seriously.

"I see what this is." Sianid called out to the others. "Entrap me into demonstrating my power to this assembly, as if that will prove something."


She looked around the room to look directly at each of them--especially Darth Rictus. "Very well. Look now upon the most powerful Sith to enter these chambers in a thousand years . . . and fear me."

And with that, she locked her attention squarely on the Sith girl and commanded the presence within to rise up and ignite her power like a starship laser, burning every cell of her body from the inside outward. The entire world for her became tinted in a blood-red sheen of fire and pain. She channeled the pain into fuel for her hatred, and prepared to reduce this little creature to a pile of cinders.

As expected, the Sith girl activated a portable combat shield and began channeling the Force to strengthen it. It would not save her.

The blast of lightning Sianid unleashed was unlike anything the assembled Darths had ever seen. Had Sianid not been so completely focused on burning through the energy shield, she would have seen looks ranging from simple curiosity to downright astonishment. Their murmurs were completely drowned out by the roaring sounds of the continuous thunder that followed in the wake of the focused lightning blast she created.

The lightning was so thick and powerful that the Sith girl was completely enveloped and all but invisible within it...the only sign that she still existed was the perfectly-round bubble of her shield that the lightning formed around . . . which was slowly shrinking.

Sianid kept pushing harder and harder to tear through the shield, channeling all of her power on the singular task of destroying her opponent. With all that power came a pain that felt like her entire body was on fire, her blood boiling and her flesh from head to toe shriveling and being consumed. It was a small price to pay for ultimate victory.

After a few seconds of her vicious attack clawing and poking at the Sith's defenses, looking for a weakness, she found one . . . and the bubble popped. The Sith tried to channel the Force to protect herself again immediately afterward, but that protection only lasted a few seconds before it too had to surrender to the onslaught of electrical power.

Sianid, even through all the pain, could not suppress a smile at the sight of how her lightning's target had changed shape from a perfect sphere to the biped shape of the Sith girl's body, on the floor, on her knees. The screams of pain were simply the icing on the cake.


Wait . . . where are the screams of pain? Sianid thought to herself.


The girl was completely silent.

But not because she was dead, or otherwise incapacitated.

THIS was readily apparent because the lightning-covered shape slowly stood up.

. . . and started laughing.


This did nothing but fuel Sianid's anger to push harder and harder, no matter the physical pain to herself. But channeling all her power seemed to have the opposite effect, causing the attack to fall from large-and-powerful to small-and-weak, hardly hurting the Sith at all. Sianid kept channeling it, kept struggling to increase its effectiveness, but it simply wouldn't.

With the sharp drop in the attack's effective power came a quieting of the thunderous noise that accompanied it, enough that the Sith's voice could be heard over it. "Grandfather sends his regards." the Sith said.

Sianid muttered a long string of curses involving Zarvell, Dianiss, Lord Kallig, and numerous metaphors involving the placement of activated lightsabers in uncomfortable places--as well as 6 to 7 long, painful forms of death from various biotoxins and radioactive agents--before ceasing her attack.

And then, the room was completely silent.

The silence was broken a few seconds later by the laughter of Darth Marr himself, whose impatience to return to duty was apparently soothed by the satisfaction of having been present to see Darth Nox's failure. Soon, the rest of the assembly joined in, and the roar echoed in Sianid's ears while she still endured the painful sensation of her own flesh being burned down to the bone, and a sense of profound weakness that came along with it.

When Darth Mortis spoke up, the laughter quieted somewhat, but didn't completely subside. "We the Dark Council find you, Darth Nox, unfit for continued membership, and hereby remove you from your post as head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge. In light of the other circumstances, no further sentencing is necessary. You may leave now."

--

Outside the chambers, Sianid emerged slowly, trying to maintain her dignity and holding her head high. It wasn't working. Of her remaining allies, only Andronikos was there waiting for her.

"I'm sorry it had to go down like that, Sith." he said.

Sianid could barely speak through her seething rage, but managed to get out "Thank you."

As she started down the corridor, she noticed that he wasn't following her. "Are you coming?" she asked angrily.

Andronikos stayed near the guards to the chamber entrance. "Actually, Sith, I'm afraid this is goodbye. There was a time I thought we could'a HAD something, . . . but . . . I'm not blind. The closer we got, the more I realized that you're really playing for the girls' team . . . you never really wanted me."

Andronikos turned to enter the Dark Council chambers. "And I got a better offer, from someone who does. So long, Beautiful. It was quite a ride."

--

Andronikos entered to find the assembled Darths down on the chamber floor surrounding the Sith girl.

Darth Rictus addressed the group. "My Lords, this is my associate, Darth Occlus. Watch her carefully . . . she's a crafty one."

Darth Ravage spoke. "By order of the Dark Council and in light of your successful challenge of your predecessor: Darth Occlus, you are hereby appointed to the Dark Council as head of the Pyramid of Ancient Knowledge. You are charged with keeping the mystical knowledge of the Sith and guarding the secrets of our order."

Darth Rictus placed a hand on her shoulder. "Congratulations." he said in her ear. "I must admit, I was skeptical. But it appears that our . . . mutual friend . . . is quite a strategist."

"Well..." she whispered in reply, "...I did find it strange that he already knew my birth name before we even met."

"He did?"

"Yes. And it's been years since anyone has called me . . ."


". . . Squish'i."