The Devil can site Scripture for his purpose

[Amaethon]

Closing the door behind him, Amaethon stepped into his private quarters. With both hands he threw back the cowl of his robes and he stepped before the lone mirror. For a moment, he looked on his masked reflection, the faceless torturer. Then using his hands again, he slowly revealed the truth.

There it was, the pallid face, burned and scarred like something out of a child's nightmare; or an adult's for that matter. He allowed himself to see through the eye in which he still could. For the other was milk-white with a long scar above and below. He loosened his robes and cast them aside onto his bed.

On his throat, a thick scar where it had been cut some ten years ago. It had compromised much of his speaking ability. He could still feel the boiling water searing his skin, remember his worldless howls of pain. He could remember the blackness settling upon his vision, sweet Death. The Acolyte drew in a shuddering, ragged breath as the pain and the hate surged inside of him. He had suffered from abuse, neglect, poverty, mutilation and he had spent the last ten years revisiting his pain on as many beings as he could.

The shelves rattled and the mirror cracked before he could gain control again. He turned when he heard a thump. A leather-bound book had fallen on the floor a d he reached out a hand, levitating the volume to him. Ah, he thought, this one. This particular book he had...acquired some months ago, feeling a faint echo of the Dark Side about it.

He opened to a random page, and there in handwritten basic, the Code of fhe Sith.

" Peace is a lie, there is only passion." He read aloud in his raspy whisper. The beginning line of the Code was also the beginning of his training. Every initiate learned these words, etching them into their very soul. To know the Code, to truly understand, was to know the Dark Side itself. To know the Dark Side was to know the whole of everything.

He turned to another page and he read the writings of the anonymous Dark Sider. Unlike most scholars, the author had included very little information on themself. All they would say was that they had once followed the Jedi Code and came to see the truth of the Dark Side. This page contained the following thoughts:

'To torture, to cause suffering and kill are all acts associated with the Dark Side. However, to commit these acts without purpose is beneath a true Sith. These are merely acts of wanton cruelty any small child can visit upon the meanest of creatures. A Sith does not kill merely to do so, for they have reason.'

The Acolyte paused, digesting these words. He had savoured the suffering he had created, enjoying the anguish and agony of the screams. Were these truly the acts of a spiteful child? He moved to his desk, and once he sat, he read on....

 

[Amaethon]

Another day, a maskless Amaethon sat at his desk, reading more of the philosophical tome. In this chapter, the author spoke of the Jedi Code and why it was incorrect.

'There is no emotion, there is only Peace,' it began 'This is fundamentally flawed. All beings experience emotion, sentient or not. To deny your feelings is to deny what makes you alive. Emotions hold great power, for the very word means to move. Indeed, emotions move all beings into actions from small to great. From emotions have come events that have reshaped the very Galaxies. Anger, hate, fear, love, lust and jealousy. Just a few of the many impulses that drive us to shape destiny.'

The Acolyte knew this to be true, for hate and rage gave him an almost endless source of power.

'The Jedi are wrong to deny their feelings, and yet, there is logic in the control of them. Control your anger, your jealously and your lust and you have a very potent blade indeed. Aim your blade for the heart and thrust, do not slash wildly without reason.'

Much as he was loathe to admit, he had lashed out wildly in his anger. He savored the pain and fear he visited upon others. But perhaps it would be better to store these feelings, to use them selectively.

Still later, the text read:

'Peace. Peace is a lie. It is, at best, a transitory state. It is an impasse, stillness like a winter upon a world. Nothing grows in the cold, only dying. A Sith too, dies in Peace, for they need strife as a source of fuel. The Dark Side feeds on the chaos of existence. Yet, do not gnash your teeth over much during winter. Instead, marshal your strength and rebuild. Peace inevitability leads to conflict.'

 

[Amaethon]

'I have been branded a heretic, you see, among the One Sith, for expressing individual thought. I find the irony...amusing. The Sith pride themselves on individual strength. However, for expressing individuality among the collective I commit sacrilege. I disagree. It is they who commit sacrilege for making us conform as if we were Jedi.'

The Acolyte felt a small sense of discomfort at these words. They smacked of...well, sacrilege. But he felt compelled to read more.

'Following the teachings of the One Sith is a sacrilege against the Dark Side. There, among them, you are but a cog in a greater machine. A true vassal of the Dark Side is more....'

 

[Amaethon]

Amaethon had spent much of his free time in the Libraries of the Academy browsing data cards, flimsy-plast and the occasional tome. His thoughts had been filled with the writings of The Heretic as he had taken to calling the writer. Much of the 'information' was merely fluff, the boasts of Sith Lords long dead. These supposed histories made him skeptical.

Still other recordings were called philosophy but merely were full of praise for the glories of The One Sith. What secrets did they truly hide, in the holocrons and in the minds of the Sith Lords? His mind raced.

At last he returned to his rooms and doffed his robes and mask. Once again, he sat and opened the hand written book.

'They will hide and withhold information, obscuring the truth. They do so for fear and suspicion of initiates who might surpass them. It is strange that they hand pick the ones with great potential but limit them. It will be up to you to discover the real secrets. Know that the truths will be hidden among lies still hidden among yet more truths and lies. Everything is shrouded in darkness, so you must grope blindly along the path. There will be many dangers, but if you are a true adherent of the Dark path, go on you will.'

 

[Amaethon]

'All knowledge is knowledge regardless of origin. Jedi, Sith or something in between matters not. These things are all dogma and true adherents of the Dark Side do not limit themselves as such.'

Amaethon was drawing near to the end of the writings.

'The Force is ultimate power and knowledge is the road to said power. It is how you wield such power that is Dark or Light, the Force itself is neither. Knowledge is neither sacred nor profane, only dogma makes it so. Therefore, gain knowledge and you gain power, and, is that not the pan ultimate goal?'

He closed the book, his mind churning over what he had read these several days. Did the Heretic speak the truth? If so, was the truth itself heresy? These writings countered everything he had learned for the past ten years as a Hopeful then Acolyte of The One Sith. He must decide if those words were truth or sacrilege, and in so doing, he would decide his very future.

 

[Amaethon]

The recent expedition to the ruined Jedi Temple had not turned up much of anything. It also had cost Amaethon two days in a bacta tank to recover from several fractured ribs thanks to a vaapad. Had had since returned to the library where he sat before a data terminal. Useless. This data card was useless, a topographical survey of Sorreno.

Ejecting the card, he tossed it aside and stuck another into the reader. A complete history of the Outer Rim Oreworks. Ejecting the data card, it joined the other. Without much hope, he inserted the third of four. He gritted his teeth as he read the opening paragraph of a report of Nautolan culture.

Into the pile of useless disks it went. The final disk went in and he smiled. An analysis of the Jedi Code. Very good, very good indeed. Know your enemy, it had been taught for millennia. Many overzealous Acolytes would destroy the disk as heresy, but not this one. He began to read....