Chapter 8: THE BATTLE OF BELIEF

Peace is a lie.

The more she meditated on the Sith Code, the more she failed to understand its true meaning. What drove the Sith to be what they are now, what drove them to rely on passion – think inwards and only about themselves. Baras told her the Sith Code but he never showed her its meaning.

Leena proceeded with her daily routine, train under the rain – Vette basically gave up on guessing why she's always out there. After her bath and lunch, the apprentice proceeded to have a walkout in the streets of Kaas City without her slave companion.

She thought about what her mother said for days. She didn't say much, Vette noticed that and so did the droid. She didn't attempt on opening the Holocron again or even bothered to risk herself in meeting Darth Occlus in her chambers. It would also be insulting if she just went in there without an invitation.

She had her arms around her as she could feel the cold breeze of the city, it was another ordinary day in the Empire.

As much as she enjoyed Vette, she wanted to think for herself and see what she can do on her own. Baras was a dangerous man, he made sure that the apprentice stayed in line whenever she finds herself at the urge of resistance.

"Alone today, Miss Sern?" Leena stiffened as she turned around, standing in the defensive as she grabbed a lightsaber. Lord Arrun smiled in amusement at the expression of the girl, she was ready to kill him with those eyes – he knew she saw hell at some point in her life.

"My Lord…" Leena immediately hid her lightsaber. "…forgive me I didn't… I didn't mean to—"

Arrun shook his head with a smile still on his lips. "Nothing to worry about, no harm done. I'm still breathing… so, what gives me the pleasure of finding Lord Zylas Sern's daughter alone in the streets of Kaas City?"

"Well, that's… exaggerating it… my Lord—"

"Arrun," the Sith Lord corrected with a smile still on his lips. "Please call me Arrun."

"Arrun," Leena repeated, which placed a wider smile on the Sith Lord's lips and his eyes began to glimmer as if he was a child being rewarded with something new.

"Come walk with me, Leena." He went on ahead with himself as he gently took her hand, and began to walk down the city path. For a Sith Lord, he has gentle hands and a kind tone when it came to her. Even when his yellow eyes showed the corruption of the dark side of the Force within him.

Walking around under the drizzling atmosphere of the capital planet of the Empire, he spoke of knowledge most of their conversation as she grew comfortable with him. Of course, it would only be natural, being Dark Occlus's apprentice for how many years.

And with a curious mind like hers, she couldn't help but ask questions as they found themselves walking through the jungle paths to avoid any other human contact – more or less, Baras's spies around the capital.

"You… have touched the Force," Leena spoke softly as she had her arm around his. "Tell me of its absence."

"It is standing atop the summit of a great mountain, the winds tearing about you and finding yourself buried alive. Trapped, helpless and alone. It is knowing what you want to say and never finding the words. It is a chorus replaced with silence, hearing teachings without meaning, it is like… having the energy of youth then feeling the cloak of years fall upon you… and knowing you are weak, fragile and a thing easily discarded. It is like a beloved pupil to whom you have shared everything, sacrificed everything, and having them turn from you and forget all you were."

Leena was mesmerized by the use of his words, making her even more curious about what the Force can be, what it should be through a person with such a strong connection. "Then… what does it feel like?" She asked curiously.

The Sith Lord nodded, pleased that he could share the knowledge he had learned from his master and pass it onto someone who was actually interested. Someone like her. "It is like a cloud, a mist that drifts from living creature to creature. Set in motion by currents and eddies. It is like the eye of the storm, the passions of all living things turned into energy, to a chorus. It is the rising swell at the end of life, the promise of new territories and new blood. The call of new mysteries in the dark."

'Feel this moment.' Leena heard the voice again. But unlike the first time, this voice – felt familiar to her. 'For as long as it'll last. Feel life as it is.'

"You seem to be always curious… apprentice." Arrun noticed as he turned to her with a smile. "Lord Baras doesn't teach you much?"

Leena shook her head. "Overseer Tremel made sure that I have such efficiency with combat and he taught me the basics of the Sith code… and Baras told me to embrace my emotions, so it can feel my connection to the dark side of the Force. But none of them made me understand… what does it mean to be Sith?

What is the Sith? Tremel was too eager to make sure I was advance in skills and never dedicated my first three years in the philosophy or even history… Baras never bothered at all – he told me to train, meditate and he would make me go around and do his errands for him. But he never taught me… anything I needed to be Sith."

"Do you want to be Sith?" Arrun asked.

Leena was honest with him. "No. I don't want to be Sith… but I know I have to be Sith."

"Why?"

"I was born to be Sith, like my mother before me… and I will." Arrun couldn't help but smirk, seeing the determination in her eyes, the sound of willful fire through her voice – she was beautiful to him. He can see the potential within this one apprentice, Baras was holding her back. She has the potential; she has the truth within her and he condemns it.

"Before you can learn philosophy, you need to learn the history of the Sith first."

"You learned under Darth Occlus," Leena smiled. "It should be second nature to you."

Arrun chuckled in amusement. "You pick up fast… now… it was thousands of years ago when the Jedi had another civil war which caused their Order to split into two factions. One waged war on their fellow Jedi. The kind of war that raged across the galaxy."

Leena listened thoroughly as their pace slowed down, taking their time as he was giving his small lecture to the apprentice. "But when these fallen Jedi were defeated and cast out from their world, they retreated to the worlds in the Outer Rim. And over time, they took the mantle of the Lords of the Sith on Korriban. But deep down in their hearts, they never forgot the Jedi. Their passion was of a blaze of flames which signifies their hatred for the Jedi Order, which echoes in their teachings. Their concern was only the destruction of their brothers and sisters, who turned their back on them."

"For them," he continued. "It was all that matters. All that ever mattered. But now in these times, it was a different kind of war, we Sith wage. A thing of silence and shadow. We were taught to strike from the darkness, hiding from the face of the galaxy, until all Jedi are exterminated. And once the Jedi are all gone, the galaxy is ours."

"Even if one Sith can successfully kill the Jedi, I'm sure the Republic would still fight us until they become ashes themselves."

"No matter whether the Empire or the Republic rules the galaxy, it is the dark side that shall reign unchecked." Arrun continued as they stopped for a while, gesturing her to sit down on the rock. And she did, the Sith Lord thought for a moment before he continued. "True Sith has been alone for a thousand years, they had total control over hundred-star systems. Then the Jedi drove them to the farthest fringe of the galaxy. And they still owe the Sith a few millennia of slavery for what they did to them. Jedi strictly don't form any attachments. They claim that desire unbalances you, but the Jedi misunderstand everything."

"How so?" The apprentice asked.

"To experience those simple pleasures again… would be worth anything." The passion boils through Arrun's eyes as he spoke. "And after a thousand years, Korriban was ours again for the taking. Remember this, Leena – when you feel anger in your every connection to the Force, then you will have discovered the dark side. Peace is a lie. There is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, power. Through power, victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free. The galaxy is an intricate place. If one thinks that they're doing the right thing, it will have consequences you have never imagined. We are what the Jedi made us. Vessels of hatred and vengeance – Jedi will stop at nothing to exterminate us, and we will stop nothing to exterminate them. It is an endless cycle, a wheel that could never be broken. That is the price of balance, the price of the Force."

"You… despise Jedi because that's what we were told to believe?" Leena was a curious one indeed. He spoke of hatred through the Jedi, a kind of hate that even she could feel from where she sat.

Arrun sighed and decided to be honest with her. "Like you, I lost my parents to Jedi. They wanted to take me away from them as a baby so they killed them, but before they could take me – Darth Occlus killed the Jedi and raised me as her apprentice, as her son. I owe her my life because she gave me life."

"You admire her?"

"She taught me everything I know, she's knowledgeable – she has the will to preserve Sith traditions and at the same time, have the will to go against them to ensure the survival of the Empire. Build better lives for its citizens and make an Empire that could strike fear to a new galaxy. She showed me the truth, Leena."

"And what is the truth?"

"There is no truth in the Force. There is no such thing as a great revelation." Arrun spoke his mind, telling her what he believes and see how this knowledge can affect her in away. "No great secret. That there is only you."

He was knowledgeable and could sense the honesty in his words, regardless if he is Sith. Appropriate for a self-made man with so many songs to sing.

But a man with no motives is a man no one suspects, and she doesn't know what he wants with her.

That evening, Leena couldn't help but stare at the ceiling – in the middle of the darkness as the sounds of the Force flew with the air of the planet. Its as if she was seeing dark shapes, haunting her at night. The Jedi took away her mother and slaughtered her brothers, who know how many families they have destroyed all for their pathetic ideal of a peaceful galaxy.

They claim to do something good, for the better of the galaxy by eradicating those who practice the dark side of the Force. But the truth was that they create the very demons that they're slaying. The Sith are Sith, relying on the dark side of the Force because the Jedi pushed them to become what the galaxy believes them to be.

The Jedi made them monsters.

The noise in her head, whispers every sensation of anger within her heart, within her soul – the very being that they want her to be. The Sith Lord who sleeps within the body of a little girl.

Within the same week, Darth Baras summoned the apprentice in his chambers of the Citadel. She wasn't so sure why he would summon her at such a time. It wasn't like he had anything to teach her, he thought that she was fully capable of proceeding on her own with a few tasks. That's where she's wrong.

From the moment she took her first steps in front of his presence, he couldn't help but smile behind his metal mask. He has her, a Sern who has such connection to the Force – can be transformed into a weapon that even the Jedi cannot stop. She was the perfect being to be his apprentice, a perfect weapon that could be molded in the ideals of hatred and the corruption to the dark side of the Force.

"Remember that the Sith are more powerful than the Jedi, apprentice." He uttered his words as the apprentice stood behind him in a safe distance. He had his back turned against her, his plans slowly unfolded in the process as the galaxy grows old. "Because we are not afraid to feel… I could sense it, the hatred within you – and yet, you deny to use it."

"I… I don't understand… Master."

"I assume that your father told you what happened to your mother, after the Battle of Alderaan." The apprentice nodded in silence when the Master turned to her. "We embrace the spectrum of emotions. From the heights of transcendent joy to the depths of hatred and despair." The young Sern was strong in the Force, all he need was to taint her further into the dark side until she cannot see the light. "Your hatred will be the start…"

"For three years I have watched you grow from a forsaken acolyte to a curious apprentice, and for two years under my care – you have served me and my interests well. But one thing bothers me, apprentice, the foul stench of your mother Zylas. It seems that she has found herself to go beyond death and seek you… she will break you. Your mind, your body, you will be lost—"

The Master walked towards the apprentice, as Leena avoided his eyes behind that mask of his. Feeling his fingers go through her white hair, he could feel her – the energy, the spirit of Lord Zylas Sern but what bothered him more wasn't the spirit of the child's mother. But rather, the mingling of Darth Occlus as her former student. "There is no reason for you to suffer in her teachings. What awaits you will weaken you. She will break you as she did your mother, and you will no longer know yourself."

Baras forced the girl to look him in the eyes as he held her chin up high. "You honestly believe… that I wouldn't be aware of your secret meetings with Darth Occlus's apprentice?"

Leena's eyes widen, she knew the risks and she knew the possibilities that her Master can do to her. "You and your mother Zylas, are alike…" The Master let her chin go as he walked around her, circling like a vulture waiting for the critical moment to strike. "…yet different in all the ways that matter, and I hate you as I hate her. I hate you because you crawl into my head as she does, but your presence holds no thoughts, no teachings, you are just there, unspoken. I hate you because you are beautiful to me and in that weakness lies death."

The Master continued as the apprentice listened. "And perhaps in that weakness, lies the death of those who have looked down upon me as well… and I know very well that her weakness is you. You know nothing of Darth Occlus's teachings, nothing of the pain – you wanted to turn away from power and yet she is a fool to see greatness in a weak mindset. I forbid you to go to her and preserve yourself. But if you are to continue such disobedience, you will not return as you are now. The light or the dark, there is no middle ground, balance is an illusion. Your mother was a monster."

The power inside of her was beautiful to him as she is beautiful to Lord Arrun. She's strong and cannot see as others do, but even Baras knows that in time she will surpass even his own power and his own ambitions. And he refuses to let that time be now. The power of the dark side is what holds him together and many times he has been near death, and many times he has been in pain.

"I want you to realize the true power of the dark side," Baras spoke in determination. Occlus will not have his apprentice, regardless if she is part of the dark council. "As long as the dark places in this galaxy flow through the crack of the ancient Sith Lords, we Sith cannot be killed."

Baras held out his hand as she suddenly felt the pain around her neck, her feet slowly couldn't touch the ground. Struggling for her life, feeling the blood inside of her struggling around – she felt every oxygen leaving her body. She couldn't breathe as her Master continued to choke her with the Force.

The very Force she was told to master.

"Will you obey now, apprentice? Or do you need another lesson?" Leena couldn't answer her Master's question. The Force is life itself, without it, the galaxy would be nothing. Baras decided to let her go as he called in a Sith Lord who serves him and him alone.

She was there on the floor, trying to catch her breath – wondering why Baras even spared her when he could have killed her, there and then.

But he didn't, and it bothered her. "Killing you would send Darth Occlus a message… but I must keep you alive." Baras spoke in a rather confident tone. Knowing that his apprentice wouldn't even dare go against him. "Stand."

Coughing to catch her breath still, the girl slowly stood up in the presence of her Master. Not wanting to imagine the horror that Baras could inflict on her even more. He sat down on his chair, having an amused smirk behind his mask. "We will have to send Darth Occlus a message some other way. Go on." He gestured the Sith Lord as he walked towards the apprentice.

She had two lightsabers on her belt, one from the temple of Tulak Hord and the other, from her mother – but the poor girl didn't dare to use them.

"Leave her face," said the Darth. "I need the face of Lord Sern's daughter."

The Sith Lord bowed in the presence of Baras, holding onto the girl's shoulder before he basically hit her stomach hard by the knee. The sound of her pain pleases him far too much to the point that he belittles her too much.

That evening, Vette was waiting for the living room. Wondering what took Leena so long, it wasn't like her to come home this late at night where the city sleeps. They've been in Dromand Kaas for two years now and never has the apprentice worried the Twi'ek this much.

When Leena finally took her first step by the living room, Vette couldn't help but call out to her and rushed towards her friend, her companion, her sister – she was filled with worry as she hugged the girl but, the apprentice didn't respond at all.

Vette had her arms around her but, she noticed something wrong – looking down on her hands, the Twi'lek noticed the large stain of blood behind her back. Shocked, she looked towards the apprentice who looked so tired and pale.

"2V!" The Twi'lek called out to the droid.

Leena was bleeding and she said nothing.

It frightened Vette as she watched the droid was washing her wound at the back. It wasn't regular wounds one would receive from a blade, there was the kind of marks that would be the cause of a lightsaber. It was breaking the Twi'lek's heart – watching her only friend, a woman who she considered her sister in this lonely galaxy is tortured like this.

"Is this… what it means to be a Sith apprentice?" Vette asked as 2V continued to spray kolto substance around the wound of its master.

Leena didn't even look at the Twi'lek, as she looked empty on the outside and she could feel the internal screams on the inside. "It is intended to show some strength… but it only goes that he is to show his weakness if he's to bully girls. He thinks he has won over me but the war has just begun Vette."

The Twi'lek turned to her friend, wondering what she could mean by that. "All I ever wanted was to go home to my father and my sister, now I have no choice. These are different times and I must learn to change or die. I have learned a way to win, I will pretend to be a dutiful apprentice and fight him and he would not even know it. Cut off the head and the snake will die… the Force shall set me free to be damned. I will have his head even if it's the last thing I do."

Baras wanted her to become Sith – and she will be Sith if she is determined to take her life in her own hands, and she will not be a pawn in his game.

Pretend to be weak, so he may grow arrogant.