Darth Talos
Character
The blazing afternoon sun kissed the pitch black skin of the figure that was marching through the thickening sandstorm. While the sun’s rays were kisses, the burning sands were like hot daggers that sizzled on the metallic surface of the Sith’s armor. Darth Talos or Apprentice Jargas, a title we would begrudgingly hold until he was out from the wing of Daxton Bane, had come to the Valley of the Dark Lords as Bane had instructed. He had not come to the place as soon as he thought he would, after considering the beating he took from his new master, he decided to postpone his trip for a few days to study the holocron he had been given. While he was far from being a master of the lightsaber, he was defiantly good enough to hold his own if he needed to.
He could have waited to complete this task, but he did not want to waste time on creating blades that would serve him well in battle. He was not one for the ways of the Jedi, but his father was once a Knight for the Jedi council and had held on to some beliefs he had been taught. One of those beliefs was that a warrior and his blade must be one. The lightsaber is not a mere tool, but the extension of oneself and the warrior must learn to treat the weapon as if it were his own arm. You could never have that connection with an inherited blade or a trophy blade, a ritual that has seemed to plague the Sith. Talos had never felt a connection with his father’s blade; it was fused with his energy and so could never be completely in sync with his son’s. This is why he felt the urge to forge his own blade as quickly as possible.
In the harsh Korriban sunlight, the dark Songsteel of his Witches Skin armor did not reflect the light as it should. Instead the Sith tainted metal seemed to absorb the light that hit it, keeping it unnaturally dark considering the amount of light beaming across the desert valley. The armor made him look almost inhuman; the patterns that had been carved using Sith alchemy made the suit of armor resemble misshapen human bones as if he were walking proof of life after death. The helmet upon his head completed the cynical picture, the eyes glowing red from the visor lenses that acted to keep debris from harming his vision. One would never be able to tell that under the armor that appeared demonic in nature, there was a young man barely over the age of twenty. Those who did not know better would venture to say that it was not armor at all, but a literal creature from their darkest nightmares come to punish and slaughter them. Their false assumptions would just grow more when they realized their blasters had no affect against Talos…to those unwise beings, he would be an immortal terror, a dark devil…and that gave a sick pleasure to the egotistic Sith.
Talos marched through the rising sandstorm towards a cave that lie in the heart of the valley, the place where he was told he could find the tomb of Ediz Koltah and claim the crystals he desired. He had no doubts that what Bane had told him was true; he could sense the Darkside of the force emanating heavily from the cave that he was nearing. It was a much stronger presence than he had felt anywhere else on this planet, much stronger than that of Banes or his own. As he finally came upon the mouth of the dark cavern, he took refuge just at the entrance as to get out of the storm blowing across the valley. He paused and let his eyes draw back to the scenery outside the cave where he could barely make out the statues of the pureblood Sith, standing erect on the hillsides that flanked the valley on either side. He did not marvel at the sights of these monuments as many young Sith did, to him these tombs and statues were nothing more than testament to the failure of the Sith. Not one of these “great Sith” had managed to destroy the Jedi, and when victory was in their grasp they grew foolish and were thwarted. If anything these monuments should be treated as reminders to the Sith of their past mediocrity, not as pinnacles of greatness to emulate and feel pride in. When he took his rightful place, he would make sure this place was destroyed and then rebuilt as a resting place for true Sith, for the strong!
Talos turned away and peered into the dark abyss that lay beyond the opening of the cavern. The dark of the shadows was only matched by the blackness of the Darkside that emanated from beyond them. The force was washing over him like a tidal wave, the dark energy slamming into him like a hurricane wind. He had never felt such a strong presence, it was almost breath taking. Every second he stood there he felt something inside him, tugging at him, urging him to go forward. He didn’t know what it was, but something in that cave was telling him something…telling him that power waited beyond the shadows.
The young apprentice took a deep breath, taking in the sensations of power, and then stepped bravely into the darkness. It was pitch black inside the tunnel and the ground was flat; it was as if he was literally walking into the end of the universe, where there was nothing but emptiness to find. His eyes were useless, so Talos had to rely on the force to guide him farther back into the cave. Talos rounded a corner in the cave and he was finally met with a dim light about thirty-feet in front of him. The lights were coming from thin, four foot poles in the ground that radiated a faint light blue light over their surroundings. These poles were in between two rows of grey, stone columns that sprung from the floor and disappeared into the ceiling. The two rows made a pathway leading to a large hatch the erected diagonally from the floor. Talos continued on slowly, studying the columns closely as he passed.
Each column was uniquely decorated with carvings that depicted the “strength” of the Sith Empires through out the millennia. The first set of columns depicted the first time Korriban and the pureblood Sith had united, the second set the colonization of space and then the war with the republic and the Sith holocaust. On and on the carvings went until they abruptly ended with the depiction of the Sith Empire during the Jedi Civil war. The only conclusions Talos could draw from this was that either this tomb was hollowed out during or directly after the Civil War, or this Ediz Koltah died fighting the Jedi during the war. It mattered little, the Sith was weak in life and he is even weaker now in death.
Talos turned his gaze to the hatch that was emerging from the stone floor of the cavern. It too held engravings and designs that represented the Sith, only this one also had writing in ancient Sith “Thou knew immense power in life, but thy spirit has grown ever stronger, one with the Darkside and with all who harness it.” What a load of bullshit, the Darkside has no use for the weak whether they are living or dead. Wherever his spirit was, it wasn’t “one with the Darkside”. If he a much power as those words made him out to have, well, there wouldn’t be a hatch to put them on, now would there?
Talos kneeled down slightly so he could examine the hatch. He ran his gloved hand across the surface, but he couldn’t feel any way to open from the outside. He twisted his face, under his mask, and stood up. If he couldn’t open it from the outside, maybe he had to use the force to unlock it…or tear it off its foundation, you know, whichever came first. The young Sith reached his hand out towards the hatch and closed his eyes, his mind focusing in on the door. He could almost visualize the inner workings of the stone door, there was some sort of turntable inside at least that is what he thought it was. Slowly Talos began spinning his hand clockwise, and he could hear the turntable within the door clicking. It sounded like the door was just going to collapse in on itself; with every slight turn the grinding of steel on stone was deafening.
“Come on you bastard, just open!” Talos cursed under his breathe
He kept spinning the lock until finally there was a thunderous clank. The hatch split into two sections and fell inward, hitting the inner walls with a skull cracking thud. Immediately a gust of built up air blew past the apprentice, and with it, a strong aura of the Darkside. The power was so strong that it sent chills running down Talos’s back, every hair on his body stood up and his heart began racing. This power seemed almost unnatural, like it had been building up for thousands of years without stopping. Talos looked down into the hatch, inside were stone steps that lead down into yet another abyss, but this time it was different. This was not an empty abyss as the one Talos had just exited was, this abyss was like the darkness of the closet when you are a child, heavy and occupied by something beyond explanation. Talos could no longer guarantee his safety, nor could he rely on his senses for the dark energies within the tomb were too thick to see clearly in. So, he drew his fathers saber from under the black cloak he wore and flicked it on. The blade sprung to life, its blue glow illuminating small sections of the darkness below.
He began his journey into the tomb, one step at a time. The sheer amount of Darkside energy was suffocating, it was like he was walking down steps leading down into an ocean and with every step the water pressure grew and constricted him. When he reached the last step the energy stabilized, but he still found himself swimming in a sea of dark energy like he had never experienced. It was clouding his vision, everywhere he reached out with the force he was blocked by an impenetrable wall of energy that was insurmountable to him at this point. He walked forward a few paces, sticking his lightsaber far out in front so it illuminated farther. It didn’t take him long to see that he was in some type of large, rectangular room. As far as he could see with his eyes, he was alone, but there was a lot of unexplored darkness around him and that feeling of occupied shadows still enveloped him. What was it…what was out there…
“You have not earned the title Darth.” Talos’s eyes shot wide open as his heart skipped a beat as he spun around to face that familiar voice. Clear as day, standing tall and proud was Daxton Bane. How could he have snuck up behind him? That as impossible, he would have sensed him, unless he came into the cave after Talos was blinded by the energy.
“How did you get in here?” Talos screamed to his master as he offered the blade of his lightsaber in an offensive stance
“It is easy, you are weak and I am strong. You are nothing and I am everything.” Daxton hissed as two lightsabers of his own sprung to life in his hands
“You send me here, just so you can fight me again? Are you that insecure that I will surpass you?!” the apprentice taunted
Daxton’s face curled into an evil grin “Weak.” He spat in Talos’s direction
“That is it! I’m going to kill you like I should have the day we met!” Talos lunged forward and swung his blade and Daxton raised his own in defense. As soon as the shimmering blades made contact, Talos pulled back, slightly, and went in for a diagonal cut. Again and again his efforts were met with the blade of his opponent and he did not damage whatsoever. He continued to keep Daxton on the offensive until both of Daxton’s blades came up to meet his apprentices, locking the two in a tight duel.
“Like I said…weak!” Daxton growled. It was not until now that Talos noticed something. The eyes of his master held no signs of life; they were pitch black, like dark marbles had been implanted into his head.
“What are you!?” Talos hissed back, and he got only a cynical smile in reply. This did nothing but anger the apprentice who began screaming a war cry “You die here!” Talos used the force to push Daxton off balance, sending him stumbling backwards with his sabers flared to either side. The apprentice spared no time taking the advantage, he lifted his free hand into the air, brought it down behind him and the pushed it forward. As his hand shot towards Daxton, a ball of invisible force energy struck the Sith Knight and flung him to the ground. The knights sabers flew into the darkness and Talos ran over to his recovering master.
“Now you will know pain!” Talos spat, throwing his free hand out in front of him and with it a deadly stream of red lightning. Talos expected to see his master squirm and beg for mercy but, instead, as soon as the lighting made contact the Sith vanished into thin air. Talos’s heart stopped as he witnessed his master disappear before his very eyes, as he tried to register what happened Daxton’s disembodied voice laughed in the darkness. The apprentice spun around, his eyes searching the shadows for the magician who just played him for a fool.
“What is this?! Come out and face me like a true Sith!” again the disembodied voice laughed, this time it was much deeper than that of Daxton. Talos swung at the shadows violently “What is this!?” he cried once more, his blue blade piercing the darkness but nothing else. He finally stopped, weary from the pointless swinging of the blade, and eyed his surroundings. It didn’t make any sense, how could he just disappear like that? He continued to look around the dark room, unable to see anything. But then, there was yet another deep laugh and the sight of two lightsaber blades illuminated the darkness ahead of him for just a split second before disappearing into a doorway on the opposite wall.
“Come back here coward!” Talos screamed as he took off after Daxton through the doorway. He found himself chasing down Daxton by only the sight of his lightsabers, down dark hallways that twisted and turned on a dime. Every taunt that Talos threw at his master was only met by a laugh that was defiantly not from Daxton. He didn’t know what was going on here, but he was sure as hell going to find out when he caught his master. The last corner that was turned tossed the apprentice into a completely new environment. The last corner had run him right through a massive doorway into a thirty by thirty room that was decorated with moss and strange plant life growing on the walls. There was a stone walkway, carved with tribal markings that sat on top of the caverns natural floor. Plant life had invaded the walkway by squeezing through cracks that it had made in the stone, and vines had begun to grow across the path. Everything that he saw was abnormal, he didn’t recognize one of the plants which all had a strange charcoal or purple coloring. Even the moss was an off shade of dark black that was completely alien to what Talos had seen on any planet.
At the end of the walkway was a metallic coffin, and sitting around it was the prize. Huge lumps of crystals were growing from the floor around the coffin, there was enough there to create sabers for the entire Sith army. Slowly, Talos approached the coffin, his lightsaber still at the ready. Something was wrong, there were no doors in this room and Daxton was nowhere to be found. It was impossible, there was nowhere else to go in this tomb and his master had pulled another vanishing act. Talos looked at the coffin as he got within inches of it. It was slightly raid above the ground on a pedestal, and engraved on it was a figure that must have been Ediz Koltah. Talos sighed as he thought of how many weaklings had tombs like this in the Valley of the Darklords. No “Dark Lord” has yet been able to vanquish the Jedi forever, and so none deserve to be here. Even those who had purged the Jedi had no place here, for their so called “purge” was nothing more than an inconvenience for the Jedi who always overpowered them and rose back to power. Shameful
Talos walked over to one of the large crystal growths and, using his lightsaber, cut two shards off of the growth. He stuck the two shards into his cloak, and quickly spun to leave the tomb. However, when he completed his 180, he was met with a sight that shot in heart into his throat. Standing before him was a tall, handsome man with sharp features, his hair was thick and black and his eyes were a dark, corrupted green not much different than Talos’s. The man wore a brown tunic and purple, cloth pants and shirt underneath with black boots to finish the image.
“Father?” Talos stammered as he looked into the eyes of the dead man before him.
A warm smile came across his father’s face “Jargas, I’ve missed you.” He said, his arms spread wide as if he were expecting an embrace.
He would receive none as the shock of seeing him had frozen Talos’s movements “Ho-how, I saw you die.” This was mind numbing, he had watched his father succumb to illness years ago, how was he here now?
“There are many forms of life son.” His father explained as he lowered his arms “I see you have grown well, and you are even using my armor.”
“Y-yes I used it after you died, why are you here?” Talos stammered, still in shock
His father continued to smile as he walked up to Talos and placed a hand on his shoulder “I have come because I am so proud of you. Even after my death you continued to hone your powers.” His father placed a cold hand on Talos’s helmet “the Darkside is strong with you, I can feel it.”
“Yes father…I have grown much stronger since you died.” Talos answered, a little more clear now
“Yes, yes…but you still allow the Sith to call you apprentice. You deserve more than that son. Why do you not take your place as Emperor?” His father asked, his eyes full of sadness at his son’s position
Talos flared his nose in anger “It is that Daxton, he beat me in a duel…made a fool of me!” Talos turned his anger upon his father “You did not teach me soon enough, and now I have no skill of the lightsaber, I am strong in the force but I need more!”
“Calm down son, I am sorry for anything I have done to you.” His father said, wrapping his arms gently around Talos’s neck “please, let me help you.”
Talos had to hold back tears that threatened to form in his eyes “I have missed you father.” He whispered “I only want to be strong so I can finish the Jedi once and for all and stop their corruption from spreading anymore…to make you proud.”
Talos’s father backed out of the embrace and looked past the eye covers of his son’s mask and into his eyes “I am proud, that is why I am going to help you.”
“Help me, how?” Talos questioned in wonder
“I am going to make you stronger than you could possibly imagine. When I am through, you will be able to slaughter any Sith or Jedi that dare defy you. Your power will be unmatched; your strength so freighting it will send droves of your enemies fleeing.” He put both of his hands on Talos’s mask and smiled “all you need to do is take that helmet off.” That is when a warning bell went off. Why would his father ask him to take his helmet off, especially in a place so strong in the Darkside that without its added dark aura he may have fallen victim to it completely. That’s when he began to notice a tingling in the back of his skull, and without hesitation he brought his lightsaber up and into the gut of his father. He wrenched the blade threw the man, their faces almost touching as he leaned into him
“You are not my father…Ediz” The man who claimed to be his father grinned as if he had not just been stabbed, and his eyes turned the same black as they had when he took the form of Daxton
“You are smart boy.” Ediz said in his own deep voice before the apparition of Talos’s father vanished into thin air. Talos looked around the small chamber, but Ediz’s voice had once again become disembodied “How did you know?”
“I have studied Sith magic.” Talos growled in reply. Everything made sense now, Ediz was not yet dead. His spirit still walked the halls of this tomb; he must have learned how to transfer his conscious before he died. He was nothing more than a disembodied spirit that haunted this tomb, considering he must have been dead for thousands of years it was amazing he was not completely insane.
“That is wise, especially for one so young.” The voice seemed to come from every direction “I have seen your memories; you are much too powerful to be at the whim of a knight. I could make you so strong that you could crush Daxton and the Emperor with your hands tied behind your back. Just take off that silly helmet and we can crush the Jedi together.”
“No, we will not.” Talos rebutted “You will destroy me once you take my body, and even if that were not the truth I would never accept assistance from someone who has already failed once in their lifetime. You appear to be strong as a disembodied freak, but in life you are nothing but a weak parasite.”
“You dare call a Dark Lord of the Sith weak!? You will pay for your ignorance, you will never leave here!” The voice boomed, and on queue and large slab of the wall to Talos’s right fell to the floor. There was a brief silence as Talos studied the darkness beyond the opening that had just been made in the wall…the feeling of occupied shadows had come over him again. Without warning, a massive beast flung itself from the darkness and charged right at Talos. The young apprentice had to dive to the floor to avoid being crushed by the spiked monstrosity that had spawned from the shadows. The creature slammed into the wall opposite of where he had previously resided, shaking the whole chamber like an earthquake had just hit. The thing looked like a small rancor, but it had been horribly mutated. Spikes ran up its spine and all the way down his arms to his massive four clawed hands. The beast turned to face the Sith apprentice, its mouth dripping with a green slime, its massive tusks raised in the air and its fangs barred as a sign that it was ready to feed on the flesh of the intruder.
The beast let loose a terrible roar that caused rocks to fall from their place in the wall and, just as it had before, it charged at Talos. The apprentice used the force and kicked the ground, shooting himself across the room from the monstrosity. Whatever this thing was, it was strong in the Darkside of the force. The creature slammed into another wall, but it didn’t even seem to notice as it turned to face Talos again. Talos jumped to his feet just as the beast began its charge, this time Talos side stepped from the creature’s path and ducked as it tried to claw him with its massive hand. It missed, slamming into the ground next to the apprentice who used his lightsaber to cut a deep wound into the monstrosity’s leg. It roared in pain as blood flowed through uncauterized skin in the wound. The creature swung his claws at Talos, who dove under its sweeping motion and rolled to his feet behind the beast. This needed to end now or else this thing would catch him sooner or later.
As the monster spun around to take another swipe at Talos, the young apprentice drew his saber back behind him like a Frisbee. When the creatures eyes had met Talos’s, the Sith turned spun at his waist, releasing the blade and sending it spinning like a propeller at the creatures head. Straight and true the blade found its target in the center of the Rancor like creatures forehead. The blade cut in deep, sticking into its head firmly and sending it stumbling back into the cavern wall in roaring pain. The creature clawed as the blade in his head, forgetting its prey for a few precious moments. It was more than obvious, judging from the aura, that this beast was drawing from the dark energies of the cave. Talos needed to draw on the energy around him like the beast, not awe at its presence as he had. He began to focus on the Darkside energy that was encompassing him. He held his hands mere inches apart, building up raw dark energy between them just as he had done in his real fight with Daxton. This time, however, the energy he was calling upon was much stronger, so strong that it felt as if he were going to tear his own hands off just building it up.
By the time the monster had given up trying to remove the lightsaber by clawing at it, and refocused his attention to Talos, the apprentice has built up so much energy that it had started to become slightly visible in the air. The power had taken the form of a red mist, but it showed immense signs of instability, the mist like substance pulsing violently. If he were trying to use one hand to conjure this magic he would surly have made a fatal mistake. The creature began its charge, growling ferociously and sending its saliva soaring across the room as its feet hit the ground with thunderous stomps. Just as the creature reached out its hand to strike the Sith, Talos pushed his hands forward and released the energy. The resulting affects were not what the young apprentice was expecting. Unlike the precise and deadly Force Blast he wished to use, he appeared to have unleashed something much more devastating. The red mist turned into a funnel of red energy that pushed through the beast as if it were not even there, disintegrating it down to nothing more than flakes of scaly flesh and the lightsaber along with it. The energy did not stop there; it crashed through the wall in front of Talos, obliterating the stone that it touched as it tunneled its way, with ease, through the cavern. The tomb shook as its foundations were ground to dust by the accidental release of pure energy by the apprentice.
“Shit!” Talos cursed as rocks began to crash into the ground around him. He ran for the hallway, not stopping even as the spirit of Ediz attempted to stall him with more visions of his father and Bane. He just kept plowing through the darkness on pure memory of the path taken to get him out of the tomb. He charged up the stairs, bursting through the hatch that had gotten him into the underground. He did not stop running until he could once again see the light from the bright sun of Korriban. He flew from the mouth of the cave, almost losing his balance as he barreled out into the sands of the Valley of the Dark Lords. The storm had subsided and the valley was once again calm, only a slight breeze was now gently swimming through the air. Talos looked at his hands, still mesmerized by the power he was able to summon against the beast that Ediz had sent to devour him. He had never summoned so much energy for one attack before, it was uncanny.
The young man started to feel a tingling under his gloves, however, like his hands had fallen asleep and were just beginning to wake up. He quickly pulled off his gloves to inspect his hands, and what he found underneath was charred, black and blue scabs of skin. There was slight peeling from burns that Talos never remembered feeling, but the evidence was more than clear. Had the dark energy been the cause? It must have been, there was no other explanation…what did he do? What kind of power had he let loose on that creature? If there was an answer to found, it would be in his father’s books on Sith sorcery. He would stop by his room and take a look before going to the forge to deal with the crystals and-THE CRYSTALS! Talos grabbed at the pockets of his tunic, feeling only emptiness, his heart began to race until finally his hand swept across the treasures of his journey. He gave a sigh of relief; if he had lost those crystals he might have lost his mind next….
[SIZE=18pt]The Sith Forge [/SIZE]
Force destruction, that was what Talos figured he had used back at the tomb. He did not mean to by any means, what he had tried to use was what was referred to as Force Blast. Most would rather have the power to use Force Destruction as it was much more powerful, but to Talos it was not a good sign. The energy had taken to long to build up and had to good of an effect, he wanted to kill his attacker not terraform the planet. He needed to learn to focus his energy into smaller, deadlier amounts that would not cause a planet wide earthquake when he used it. He would need to train on the aspect, but for now he had to focus on creating his new blades, especially since his fathers blade had been effectively erased from existence.
The Sith forge was located in a much more populated section of Korriban, and when Talos had first walked in it was like going back in time. The forge was massive, at least a mile in length if he had to guess. All around there were students, and knights, alike using old tools and magma to build various sorts of tools, weapons and armor. Surprisingly, even to himself, Talos rather liked the idea of building his blades from scratch without the help of a machine. This way he would have a closer bond to his blade than his father ever had to his. Already he had begun constructing his hilts; he decided to go with the defender Shoto hilts as they offered both speed and good ranges of defense and offense. He needed as much help when he was up close and personal with another lightsaber wielder, and these sabers were the way to do that.
He took full advantage of the abundant resources available for use in the forge. He forged both hilts out of a Phrik/Cortosis mixture. The heat from the magma he had to use stung his skin and made him sweat profusely. He hadn’t worn his armor to the forge, which was a lucky thing because he probably would have fainted. He forged the hilt of the lightsaber with a distinctive metal mace on the end opposite of the slit where the blade would emerge. This ball would allow him to use the back of the sabers as a blunt weapon. Next, he forged the grip and two small turntables that would protrude slightlgy from the grips so they could be inserted into the hilts. These spinning mechanisms would allow Talos to spin the hilt of his lightsaber with the application of the force on the grip. Meaning that he could spin the blades 180 degrees in a blink of an eye, bringing the plasmatic blade either in front of his hands or along the length of his arm without have to physically spin the whole weapon.
Once the blades were finished…he would place the crystals within them, making their blades shine a menacing red and he would be ready to take on any training that Daxton had in store for him.
