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The Greatest Sith... That
Never Lived
Posted by: Darth Danno
06.13.07 12:01am
Previously:
CHAPTER XXI: EXPLANATIONS…AND
REVELATIONS (Part II)
Contagion resumed the droids
tale, stating that by the time Danno had completed enough of
the repairs on the HK unit to bring it back on line, they were
in the far most reaches of the galaxy, orbiting a world they
would later discover was the planet Yuuzhan’tar. The assassin
droids first mission under Lord Danno was to accompany him as
he explored this strange new world. They landed, and set off
to see what there was to see. Shortly thereafter, six Yuuzhan
Vong warriors beset upon them. Lord Danno quickly dispatched
two, and the HK unit took out two more with its blaster cannon,
before one of the Vong used something called an amphistaff to
sever the droid’s arm. Before the HK unit could retrieve
its weapon with its one good arm, the warrior kicked the droid
down into a small gully.
As he struggled to right itself
and return to the fight, he over heard his master talking to
one of the savages whilst still engaged in combat. He couldn’t
make out everything, but heard certain phrases like…strong
in the dark side…powerful apprentice…rule the galaxy,
things like that. The HK unit couldn’t understand why his
master would need or want to align himself with such a primitive
when he already had himself, and one couldn’t ask for a
more highly efficient or loyal…
Ruin cleared his throat quite
vocally, indicating that Lord Contagion needed to get back on
track, so he continued. The HK unit, having only one working
arm and hand, made extricating himself from the gully quite difficult.
He almost succeeded, when a large form came careening over the
edge, slammed into him, and sent both of them rolling back down
the incline to the bottom of the ditch. It was then he realized
the object that hit him was the body of the warrior who had severed
his arm, or to be more precise, the head, arms, and torso of
the warrior. Now he had to pry himself out from under the corpse
and begin anew, his ascent out of the crevasse. By the time he
had achieved freedom, his master had defeated the remaining warrior.
Yet Lord Danno didn’t turn and leave, instead he knelt down,
picked up the Vong body, and carried it back to the ship. Now
the droid was sure his master was in need of maintenance, but
the priority was to blast off from this cursed place before it
was too late. So the unit picked up its severed arm, the hand
still gripping its blaster cannon, and followed after Lord Danno.
They took off, and headed to
the nearby world of Zonama Sekot. The HK unit thought it would
be more advisable to get as far away from this area of space
as possible, but Danno wouldn’t hear of it. He said he needed
time to examine the body while it was still fresh. Examine it
for what?, the droid thought. However, he complied with his Master’s
wishes and landed on the nearby planet. For days, Danno never
left the ship, never venturing out to explore the surroundings,
just spending all of his time in the hold, going over every inch
of the warriors form with great interest. The HK unit tried to
ask, but was always hushed and sent away. It would have been
pleasant to go out and look around, but considering his master
hadn’t taken the time to repair his severed appendage, he
concluded leaving the craft would be inadvisable.
Finally Lord Danno announced
he had concluded his examination, and the droid was freeto dispose
of the corpse, which by now, was beginning to stink up the whole
ship. The HK unit finally broached the subject of it needing
repair, and Danno acquiesced. After all, how was a mighty assassin
droid such as himself supposed to lug around a rotting body with
only one arm? Plus, was this really part of his programming?
He was designed to hunt and kill, not take out the trash like
some average labor droid.
Nevertheless, he lugged the grotesque
form out of the hold and into who knows what. This time, they
had parked the ship high up on a ridge so they would be less
prone to attack by any inhabitants. It wasn’t long before
the HK unit found a suitable cliff from which he tossed the body
into the abyss below.
Upon returning to their craft,
at first glance, the droid thought his optical sensors were malfunctioning.
Standing at the entrance to the hold, was the exact same creature
that the unit had, moments before, summarily disposed of. He
quickly reached for his blaster cannon, and then realized he
had failed to bring it along as corpses rarely, if ever, create
a need to use one. While trying to calculate alternative options,
the Vong warrior before him simply let out a long, hard laugh,
then it’s form started to change and shift until the primitive
was no more, and in its place was the familiar shape of his master.
All of this was too much for the droid’s circuits to bear,
and it almost had a melt down right then and there. It was then
Lord Danno revealed himself to be a Clawdite, and everything
made sense…sort of. He also plainly heard his master say,
“If I can’t find an appropriate apprentice, I’ll
create my own!!”
Soon, they took off and began
the long journey back. Over time, Lord Danno began to communicate
more and more with his “invisible friend”, as the HK
unit referred to him. It got to the point the droid could no
longer even sit in the co-pilot’s chair, as that was now
reserved for “Darth Mortis”. So the assassin unit was
relegated to the hold. Many times throughout their return trip,
he plainly recalled hearing two distinct voices coming from the
cockpit, but upon venturing up to investigate, found only Lord
Danno present. The HK unit often questioned his master regarding
his…invisible friend, but only got stern glances and commands
to “be quiet!” in return. If the droid persisted its
interrogation, he got hit with a healthy dose of Force lightning.
After twenty to thirty jolts of that over time, the HK unit just
gave up, and hoped that his master would get over whatever sickness
had befallen him, or at least seek some form of medical treatment.
“Twenty to thirty jolts???”
Ruin questioned. “One would think one jolt would be enough.”
“You’re right, of course.”
Contagion replied, “but apparently there was a small part
of the HK unit which…enjoyed the pain.”
“Go on…” Ruin
said in an exasperated tone.
As they approached Rattatak,
Lord Danno ordered the HK unit into one of the smuggling holds,
and told him to remain there until summoned. The droid was not
at all pleased with the confined quarters, but couldn’t
do much to change things, so it lay in wait and bided its time
until Danno called for it.
“Did the assassin unit tell
you what happened to Lords Rage and Vikuru?” Ruin wanted
to know.
“Oh yes,” Contagion
responded, with obvious enjoyment in his tone. “Lord Danno
could hardly begin to carry out his plans of conquest with Lord
Rage watching every move he made, so he dispatched her in short
time. I had thought Rage to be more skilled in combat, and less
susceptible to trickery, but…oh well. Danno also knew he
couldn’t let Lord Vikuru have too much time with the holocron,
another reason I believe it to have been a forgery, so he made
quick work of him also. Though it was not clear if it was Lord
Danno or Mortis who did the deeds.”
“But I spoke to both Lords
Vikuru and Rage…” Ruin began.
“You were really conversing
with Lord Danno. I surmise he allowed them to live only long
enough to get down their precursory speech patterns and mannerisms.
Hoping to never have to have more than a quick passing conversation
with anyone. Any talks at length would only raise the chances
of him being discovered.”
“So what did he do with
their bodies?” Ruin asked.
“He had the droid wrap them
up and place them somewhere outside the enclave. I didn’t
get the exact location, suffice it to say it was far enough away
to avoid being discovered by one of our roving patrols, but close
enough that they could get to them if the need arise. Now portraying
two distinctly different beings was hard enough, let alone four.
Hence Lord Danno had the droid rig a bomb in the lab, retrieve
the two corpses, place them in there, and…you know the rest.
”
Ruin scowled. “So a droid
was able to come and go as it pleased, carrying bodies in and
out of the fortress as if it were nobody’s business? Remind
me on our return to speak with Lord Rancor about or security
measures, or lack thereof!”
Contagion nodded. “To be
sure. Apparently the explosion was such that no one could tell,
upon examining the bodies, that they had died long before.”
“Or maybe,” Ruin snarled.
“No one even bothered to examine them!”
Contagion snapped to attention.
“I shall commence a full investigation upon our return,
my Lord.”
Ruin dismissed the notion with
a wave of his hand. “No need, what’s done is done.”
He paced back and forth for a few moments, letting everything
digest before deciding the next course of action. “He made
fools of us all, you know.”
“And also the Jedi, he made
fool…”
Ruin stopped pacing and crossed
right up into Contagion’s face. “What he did to the
stinking Jedi is immaterial! What matters is the Sith! He caught
us completely unaware! We all fell into his pit of lies and deceit.
Now, here we are, two of our brethren are gone, and you and I
are out in the middle of this forsaken wasteland watching him
fight himself to the death. Why, when you found all this out,
didn’t you simply confront him back on Rattatak? Or at least
come to me and inform me of what was going on, rather than drag
me out here to the middle of nowhere just to observe this obscene
spectacle?
“I had thought about confronting
him back home, my Lord.” Contagion began in an appeasing
tone. “But after meditating on it, I thought this would
be a far more suitable alternative. I believe over time, the
two personalities had become more and more separate. What better
way to dispose of them both, than by pitting one against the
other! Hard to believe, isn’t it? Danno is down there fighting
for his life against an opponent…that only exists in his
mind. Yet he sees him as clearly as you see myself. Had you noticed
they each had their own fighting styles, mannerisms, personalities;
they even carried different forms of lightsabers. Danno with
the dual short blades, and Mortis with the single. Even going
so far as to have their own speeders. The one you saw back in
the ship was Mortis’s. Before I left, I managed to grab
his saber out of a side pouch, kind of a memento of this whole
adventure.
“Oh yes,” Ruin replied
snidely. “Let us make sure to declare this as a grand Sith
holiday, and remember it yearly with a week-long festival, ending
in a pilgrimage to Tatooine to lay accolades upon his tomb.”
Ruin backed away from his companion, crossed back to the cliffs
edge and gazed down. “Who else knows about all this, about
Danno’s secret identity?“
Contagion wasn’t sure where
his master was going with this. “No one, My Lord, just you
and me.”
”That is how it will stay.
This whole encounter must never be recorded or written down in
any shape, form, or fashion. As far as Lord Danno is concerned,
after killing all the Sith at Umbara, he disappeared, and was
never heard from again.”
“But why, my Lord?”
Ruin spun around to face Contagion
once again. “BECAUSE HE PLAYED US ALL FOR FOOLS!!!! We had
a changeling in our midst, and no one detected it. An assassin
droid was able to come and go as it pleased, carrying Sith corpses,
and sabotaging our lab, and no one was the wiser! We are not
many in numbers, and now, because of all this, we’ve technically
lost four of our brethren, and one of them never really existed
in the first place!” Ruin started to pace once again. “Could
you imagine what would happen if the Jedi found out about this?
They’d be only too happy to tell every one of the grand
Sith folly. We’d be the butt of every joke in every cantina
across the galaxy. Certainly last but not least is the fact we
didn’t uncover this whole charade due to our senses finely
attuned to the dark side, which opened our eyes to it all. Nor
was it Sith intelligence that revealed Danno’s true nature.
No, it was a simple HK assassin droid who was jealous his master’s
newfound friend, and decided to spill it’s electronic guts
to the first bumbling fool who happened to trespass onboard his
ship!”
Trying to appease his master
once again, Contagion replied, “But Master, don’t you
see the beauty of all this? He’s down there fighting a losing
battle against his own psyche, while the twin suns here do our
work for us! We never even had to lift a finger!”
Ruin scoffed. “Never even
had to lift a finger, eh? No, instead we had to waste who knows
how much fuel, traverse mile after mile of barren landscape on
this…planet, narrowly avoid being attacked by the local
savages, climb all the way up here to this rocky perch, all to
watch the third act in this bizarre tragedy play itself out.”
He paused, turned his head left and right while glancing skyward.
“I sense the Jedi approaching. The time for games is at
an end. We must finish this here and now.”
Looking over the edge of the
cliff, Contagion responded, “It looks like it already is…”
Darth Danno
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