The suite Lando had given us that night was quiet and peaceful, something I did not mind, not after everything that had happened. I was lying on my back, Vila curled up against me, her breathing warming my neck, yet my mind couldn't settle... and I don't know why. Something just kept... nagging me. And the only thing that came to mind was the lightsaber, nestled in the chest of HK. The feeling was not natural, and it was coming from the Force... I could tell that much after concentrating on it a bit more. As I began focusing on it more, at some point, I must've fallen asleep, slipping into the feeling itself and through it, into the memories that were stuck to the Sith artifact.
Why do I think that? Because the next thing I knew… I wasn't in the suite anymore. There was no bed, no Vila, and I was standing on a ridge of black-red stone beneath a sky that was for now blue but was slowly turning red under the setting sun. Even then, heat rolled off the ground in waves that made the horizon blur, and all around me, swirling ash drifted through the air as the wind blew past me. Yet the world around me wasn't dead, not even when the vision I was seeing, that also suggested that it was ruined beyond anything else... Instead, it felt alive in the worst way possible... Through the Dark Side.
"Is this... Korriban?" I asked myself, immediately thinking of that planet after seeing the barren, red world.
It had to be, because I was facing down a valley carved by people who were long dead, yet their craftsmanship remained. As I walked, exploring this vision, I saw immense statues of warriors, wearing unfamiliar armor and regalia, lining the cliffsides from both directions. Their faces were just as detailed as the rest of their body, almost lifelike, even if their features were made to face the harsh sunlight for who knows how long. They still defied it, unwilling to give in to the erosion of time.
I had never visited the Sith's ancient tomb world, not that I wanted to, but I did read about it. If my sudden journey was real, and not just a dream, I had to admit that their architecture was something that others should study... After so much devastation and looting, by their own kind many times, the towering mausoleums rising from the sands, pyramidal temples layered with carvings, and bridges of black stone stretching between cliffs, entering into hidden tombs carved into the mountains... all of it was still standing. That alone was simply incredible.
"Did you come from this place?" I asked, not myself nor anybody, but the lightsaber itself, and when I looked down...
I was holding the hilt in my cortosis-made hand, as it resonated, as if answering me with a hum. I don't know if I understood it right, but... Apparently, its answer to my question was... no?
"Then why are you showing this to me?"
Just as I asked, something shifted behind me, making me almost jump. When I turned, I saw him.
He wasn't a Jedi, of course not, and he wasn't human either. He was tall, taller than me by half a head at least. His skin was the same blood-red as the carved statues around us both, while his face had ridges, bone-crest markings, and eyes of fire. Actual fire, one that burns with a manic, wanton need to kill and with the desire to inflict misery on anyone who would go against him. The more I looked at him, the more I could tell I was looking at the owner of this saber... and he was unstable. Just like how his armor was dark, cracked, and battle-damaged, barely functional, probably only for show, telling everyone how many conflicts he managed to survive by just looking at him.
Then, when I looked at his hands, he was also missing one arm, from the elbow... and that hand was now holding the same saber I was carrying... No. I wasn't keeping it anymore. I was empty-handed, only watching as the figure walked through me, as if I were a ghost, and I felt that he was here on a call from his master... Here for a new mission. A new... massacre.
When he walked through me, I could tell that he was not only the amalgamation of fury, but it was his sole reason to be alive. This... creature was barely anything that I would call... a proper Sith. Yes, he was from the species itself, yes, he had the Force, and yes, he could use a lightsaber... But he was nothing more than that. A weapon. Just a tool for killing...
"A berserker?" I muttered, the feeling and thought coming from me from a distant past.
Whatever training he had received or whatever lord or master had molded him to be like this, they had done so with the sole purpose of turning him into a living weapon that they could use to eliminate their enemies. His emotions were raw and wild, his madness and rage barely contained by a sliver of consciousness remaining in him. Maybe he was close to blowing up, at least, that was what I felt looking at him.
"Where are you going?" I asked myself whether I should begin to follow the Sith... Then, deciding I had to, and when I did, everything before me changed.
The dunes transformed around me, flowing like a mirage being dispelled, and suddenly I stood in the middle of a battlefield. There were a dozen warriors of his species who rushed past me, some clad in heavy armor, some stripped bare but for ritual markings, black tattoos, burning in the Dark Side energies emanating from their bodies...
Is this... a civil war? Or just the usual Sith graduation ceremony?
Whatever it was, the owner of that staff-saber was rushing into the coming enemies, with no hesitation in his steps, none at all. His first move was to blast the first row of the attacking brethren of his with a massive blast of chain lightning, frying two of the foremost warriors, turning them into simmering, smoking corpses, before clashing into the rest of them like a swoopbike that lost all of its brakes. All I could see at first were red lightsabers flashing and clashing, body parts being severed, and the crazed roar of the berserker.
He didn't fight with technique, not at all. He was more like an animal as he fought with instinct, a creature that was tuned explicitly for slaughter, guided by the invisible hand of some cruel master who wanted him this way. Whoever held the leash of this one wanted him unthinking and obedient enough to do his bidding. Yet... his battle instincts were honed to such a perfection that it awed me. I was scared by just looking at him, and I knew... This was not a life anyone should have... Still... here I was, watching him massacre the others with ease, cutting through them, and even when they were crushed, sliced apart, he didn't stop, stomping on the heads of the corpses, tearing them apart with bare hands and with the Force...
Then... As I looked away, not wanting to see it, the scene blurred again, changing much faster this time, and the reddened battlefield melted into a different landscape entirely, becoming another world.
Blinking my eyes, the scenery was still red, still harsh to the eye, but... colder. The jagged mountains around me weren't crimson anymore, either; they turned dark, covered in snow... mostly. Looking up, the sky was also dimmer, clouded with thick, black smoke and ash, thanks to multiple, massive burning fires around me... Trying to see where I was, I looked further into the distance, where I could see a storm gathering, lightning flashing on the horizon, right above a giant ocean.
"Where is this...?" I asked myself before finally noticing the same Sith berserker.
He was there, climbing up the mountainside, close to the shoreline, without any gear, only using his muscles and the Force, and as I followed his path, I noticed a fortress carved into the mountain itself, halfway between the top and where the snow and ice began. Focusing on the man, his breathing was strained, and his thoughts were in disarray, even more so than before.
"You are late..." I murmured, as if realizing something. As for what, I don't know, I just felt I was right... He was late.
Just as he was about to reach the fortress, an explosion rang out from it, spewing a massive fireball into the air, creating another black spire to feed the smoke and ash above us all... Yet he did not stop; he just heaved himself up even faster, to land at the edge, watching the fire burn, a secondary explosion shaking it again... and then to see people appear. I mean... people. Humans... Well, two humans and one togruta.
Jedi... All of them. I could feel the Force in the group, and what was surprising was that the three together were barely able to create the same kind of ripple that the berserker did alone... which made me gulp. I watched as they raised their blades, two blue and one green, standing in the defensive formation of Form II, III, and V... just as the Sith jumped on them, roaring, frothing at the mouth like an enraged rancor.
For a moment, I thought that the vision had blurred again, but no, it was the streaks of red light from his blade, the maddening rage that exploded from him, and the clash of the trio facing this machine of murder... The Jedi tried pushing him off, but it was like facing a tide on the beach; the Sith simply crashed into them. He wasn't holding back, and he let the madness overtake him, becoming lost in the power of the Dark Side, probably forever.
Yet it made him an incredible force in itself... without any desire to defend his body, giving up on his vessel altogether. He went for the kill with every swing, and for the price of losing his already mechanical arm, he cut off one of the human's arms, using the Force to grab his blue saber, and lunge it into his abdomen, killing him. Then, without flinching as he was almost sliced into two, and even then, he just tore into the green saber in the togruta's hand, using his double-bladed weapon to impale her before she could finish her killing strike. Still standing, through the sheer anger and hatred, he kept moving, releasing a Dark Side shockwave, causing the last Jedi to simply scream out, grabbing onto his head... falling over, convulsing, blood flowing from his nose, eyes, ears, and mouth... I couldn't believe what I was seeing but... I knew that for the power he had at the end... he also paid a price. He was dead before the first lightsaber stabbed into him. And finally... all of that damage caught up to the Sith warrior, as I watched him collapse, leaving no survivors behind... not even himself.
It was how he always fought... I somehow knew that now.
I watched as the saber rolled from his hand, blade extinguished, no longer owned, slowly plummeting down from the cliffside, leaving behind the Sith warrior's body, which was now falling apart, lying on the cold stone, smoke rising from all of his wounds...
"The saber didn't come from Korriban..." I muttered to myself, realizing the truth.
He died here... wherever this was! And whoever his master was had to have his lair here, the home that was destroyed by the Jedi of his time... But where? I tried to look for clues, up at the sky to see the stars, but they were blocked. I tried to find anything, but then the dream dissolved as if the vision decided I had seen enough and blew me away with its breath, expelling me. The moment that happened, I jolted awake, heart hammering in my chest, gasping for air.
"Mhm...?" Beside me, Vila stirred at once, opening her eyes, looking at me, "Kael…?" she whispered, still half-asleep.
"Yeah..." I swallowed, trying to calm my breathing. "It's nothing," I said softly.
"It isn't nothing..." She murmured, sitting up with me, seeing how drenched I was, how my heart was beating as she gently hugged me, trying to calm me down. "A vision?" She asked, stroking my wet hair.
"I guess..." I nodded, licking my dried lips, "I think I saw the memories of the owner of that damned saber... He wasn't a normal Sith, but one that was bred to kill."
"That does make sense..." She nodded, keeping me in her arms, rubbing my head, "What else?"
"A different planet," I added, retelling her everything, "Wherever Iowi and Jalo may be... I don't think it's Korriban..."