The Pilgrimage Pt.2

[Leo Vandermolen]

It had happened. After so many months of meditation, of running between planets to fetch seemingly random or useless objects for Leo's mysterious teacher, his journey had been complete. He'd been deemed worthy of wielding the ancient sith master's sabre.

Darth Avrok's spirit postured outward, staring out to the planet he'd once ruled before, now only a ghost inhabiting it's corpse. "You have done well, Leo Vandermolen." Avrok's voice carried across the still air, "It seems you're time on this old planet will almost be ending, and the objects you have gathered for me will be a great boon to me as i remain confined to this planet."

A hint of a smile played across the lips of the force spirit, but it was gone as fast as it had come. "Indeed." Leo replied, "We have both been rather beneficial for each other in this little relationship of ours, but i need to return to the galaxy. Not just to find trinkets and baubles to rush back here for your own nefarious needs, but for my own reasons."

"Ahh, of course..." The old man trailed off, his eyes fliting back and forth between Leo and the horizon of the once great planet. "Then I believe you've earned my favour... and a gift."

 

[Leo Vandermolen]

The ground suddenly began to shift underneath him, a vicious boom echoing outward from the dark nexus, making Leo's ears hum. The suddenness sent him stumbling forward, catching himself with one of the decayed, purple tendrils that grew from the long dead of the planet. Except, it no longer felt decayed, in fact, it felt like it was moving.

Avrok's stern facade finally dropped as a low chuckle escaped from his wispy lips. Leo looked up to meet his gaze and realised exactly why he had laughed. In the cold stillness of the dead planet, Avrok was recreating life, or at least a mockery of it. The tendrils writhed in the dark night, displaying a vestige of Avrok's once great power as force energy pulsated through them unnaturally. "What are you doing?" Leo demanded, tearing his hand away from the tendril he'd used to support himself.

"Giving you your gift." The force spirit smiled. Without another word the four largest tendrils that cornered the alter lashed forward in unison, squirming and writhing until they found their through the weakest chinks in Leo's armour and piercing his body. Leo could feel the corruptive torrent of energy course through him, the ebbs and flows of the force clashing within him. Light and Dark... Dark.

 

[Leo Vandermolen]

Leo woke with a start, his body aching terribly. Carefully inspecting himself, he could not find the puncture wounds from where the tendrils had buried into him, yet their presence was still felt, inside his body, inside his mind, that feeling didn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Realising he'd moved, Leo craned his head to see his ship parked behind him, still in one piece.

Most interesting was the organic mass in this area was still dead and decayed, no sign of movement or life. In fact the whole planet seemed to have returned to its once inert state. From his ship Leo could not see The Cage, the dark heart of the planet, and whatever Avrok had done to the dead matter that engulfed it. But whatever the old spirit's plans were, it would seem Leo had an important role.

Kark it. Leo decided, You'll get nothing done sitting here on your ass. His hand found hold of Avrok's saber, given to him now, to learn and to use. Activating the saber unfurled the deep crimson hue of the blade, an immense weapon in Leo's mind, and one that will help him master the force.

 

[Leo Vandermolen]

Leo deactivated the saber and picked himself up with an exhausted groan. A deep wave of understanding washed over him in that moment. An understanding of just how little he'd slept in the years he'd passed on this ancient planet, forgotten to the galaxy, in his small home he'd ramshackled together to survive, he'd become like Harok, also forgotten.

But it was time to rejoin the galaxy at large, understand what had happened to it in his absence. Plodding up the ramp to his ship he gave one last look out over the planet, he would not come back here, not wilfully.

It was time to go.