Ace in the Hole

Act 1 - Chapter 3

Chapter III - Sanguine Sin
"And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." - Genesis 4: 10-11

Acacius sat aboard the chambers inside of the Rogue Shadow, still thinking about the message that holocron was delivering. He didn't know what to think, or even if what he was thinking was right, he didn't know what he was feeling. He couldn't feel sorry for the Jedi, for the treacherous scum that had plagued the galaxy for generations. He got up from his seat in the cockpit to go to the small-scale training dojo aboard the ship, leaving the holocron on the table beside him. He entered the training room, and took a kneel in the center, as Darth Vader slowly walked to the center of the room in front of him.
Vader broke his silence and spoke up, "Have you disposed of the threat, my apprentice?"
"Yes, father." Acacius said, taking her lightsaber off his belt and handing it to Vader. Vader carefully inspected the hilt of her saberstaff, taking note of the little details, confirming it was the craftsmanship of Oma Arentha, and that she had died.
"Excellent work, but your duties are not over." Vader said, handing the saber back to him.
Acacius replied still at a kneel, "What is thy bidding, my master?"
Vader put his arms behind his back, "Acacius. I haven't told you about how Sith get their lightsabers, have I?"
"Through growing our artificial crystals?"
"That is one of them. But the true way is much different. A Sith's lightsaber crystal is just like any other, but with one exception.
It has been made to bleed."
"...My Lord?"
"I've taught you how natural kyber crystals work, have I not?"
"No, Master. I believe you have not."
"Well, in that case, open your ears. When a Jedi bonds with a crystal, they meditate with it, form a bond with it. In a way it is an extension of themselves, a living piece of the Jedi. You must kill that part. Channel your negative emotions into the crystal, pour the dark side into it. It will take effort, but through persistence, it will bleed. Then, and only then, you will have the true crimson blade of a Sith!" Darth Vader said, igniting his blade to show Acacius. "You have killed this Jedi, this is your destiny my son."
Acacius nodded, "Yes master, I understand. A sith's saber is not given, it is taken."
"Excellent. Report back when done." Vader said, and began to glitch out and the hologram wore off on Proxy, and he returned to his normal state. Proxy collapsed, but Acacius caught him and kept him upright.
"I hate being him.." Proxy said, still weak.
"I think that he does too." Acacius said, helping Proxy up onto his feet. Proxy then left the room and shut the door behind him, leaving Acacius by himself. He looked down at the saber on his belt, slightly intimidated. He took it off of his belt, and held it in his hand. Her craftsmanship was impeccable, and condensed into such a good hilt. He knelt down and began to disassemble it, trying to access its crystal. He tore it apart in frustration, unable to find a feasible point to properly dismantle it, eventually finding the blue kyber crystal inside.
He took out the crystal, and examined it carefully. Acacius had heard of Kyber Crystals before, and feeling the weight of what he was about to do made him fearful. He began to clutch it in his hand, and through the force poured all his pain and suffering into it that he had experienced up until this point. He didn't feel like he was having much effect however, nothing was happening.
Acacius began to reach deeper into his memories, more traumatic events, more anger, more sadness. The crystal began to shake in his hand immensely, as a bright light began to emit from it. The crystal fought back, and in a flash of light threw him across the room, knocking him out immediately.
Acacius's body smoked afterwards, as his eyes reopened, as he stood back up.
"What am I doing..."
Acacius took the crystal back, and put it in his own lightsaber in place of his own synthetic red one. He exited the room and went to Azure, telling her to go to Mustafar, and she immediately turned the ship around. As soon as she landed, he got off, and began to run down the hallways to Vader's quarters. He knocked on the pressurized pod that Vader used to meditate in, and it shortly after opened. Vader was unmasked, his face discolored and scarred, as well as burned too.
"Child, can't you see I'm attending to personal matters?" Vader said, his voice was much different than normal, he sounded more.. human than normal, as his helmet was obscured.
"Father, it's about my lightsaber."
"Oh? Show me your saber, have you become a true sith?" Vader said, pointing to his saber on his belt. Acacius ignited his lightsaber, showing off the blue blade.
"So this is the path you take?"
"Yes."
Vader stood up in anger, and took his lightsaber, igniting it and striking at Acacius. Acacius parried the attack, and tried to stab Vader. Vader clashed with Acacius, as he maneuvered his blade around him. Acacius slashed Vader across the chest, and watched him fall to the ground, dead. Acacius ran immediately back to the docking bay, getting in the ship as he told Azure to take off immediately. Azure did as told and shot them back into hyperspace before anyone noticed Vader's death. Acacius stared at his saber hilt with immense guilt.
"P-please... forgive me..." He said to the crystal, and attempted to apologize for taking Arentha's life.
Then Acacius's eyes shot open, he was still aboard the Rogue Shadow, still an unbled crystal. Oma's crystal had merely shown him a vision, in an attempt to turn him good.
"No. I refuse." Acacius said, standing back up, and clutching the crystal.
"This is all that there is." He began to bleed it again, tightening his grip to the point he felt like he could shatter it.
He poured all of his hatred into it, hatred towards his father, hatred towards what he did to him, hatred towards the crystal for lying to him, hatred towards himself. The crystal shook violently, and consumed the room in a powerful light, shooting out lightning that burned his skin and made his muscles convulse.
He put his pain into it. The pain of his dismembered hand, the pain of his father's torture, the pain of the scars littered all over his body, the mental anguish of this current moment. The crystal began to shoot out more light, nearly blinding Acacius, it felt as if the sharpest clawed hands were digging into his skin, trying to rip them apart. The crystal began to glow orange, trying to fight back harder
Acacius then doubled down, recalling every single traumatic event that he had experienced so far as he clenched his fists around it, his knuckles on his right hand turning a pale white from his bones. He recalled all of his father's one on one training and how he was shown no mercy, he recalled being shot at with live rounds by Stormtroopers, he recalled all the times he was abandoned on exoplanets to survive by himself, he recalled having to kill Arentha.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGGHHH!!!!" Acacius screamed in agony as he struggled to keep bleeding it, but with how much pain he had inflicted already it would be monstrous to stop now. Suddenly, he heard what sounded like cracking, and the room filled with a blinding red glow. His pain sharpened in under a second, and then...
It was done. The pain had suddenly stopped out of nowhere, he looked at the room, and his tattered clothing, before opening his hands up. The crystal was now a glowing blood red, he looked at it with intrigue, and a sense of slight guilt. He pushed his emotions down, and took out Oma's lightsaber, inserting the newly bled crystal into the hilt. Proxy came back into the room, and rushed to open the door, he was about to start prying it open before it automatically opened.
"MASTER! Oh thank The Maker, I'm happy to see you're not dead!" Proxy ran up to Acacius and hugged him, although his skeletal body made of cold and hard steel didn't provide much comfort. Acacius returned his hug anyway.
"Thanks, Proxy... I'm glad nothing happened to you either during that." Acacius says, his tone more saddened.
"Oh yes, we're very fortunate for my safety, especially considering that the energy from that crystal EMP'd the ship too! But anyways, I assume the crystal is bled now?"
"Yes, start up the transmission."
"On it Master!" Proxy said, his projectors glitching a little bit from previously, although eventually projecting Darth Vader's form on him.
"Acacius. I assume you have completed my task for you?" Darth Vader said.
"Yes Father. What is my next mission?" Acacius unhooked his saber from his belt and ignited the blade, glowing a piercing and more stable red than before, the hum also sounded less crackly than before and lower pitched.
"Excellent." Vader put his arms behind his back, "A jedi has been reported at a recently discovered planet, designated as 'Musor-2' within the Alpha Centauri star system. What imagery we've gotten so far are blurry and inconsistent, but there's a lightsaber spotted in all of them. None of our soldiers have come back from there. I don't expect you to come back alive, but if you do, you'll be one step closer to fulfilling your destiny."
"It will be done, my lord." Acacius took a bow, and deactivated his saber. Proxy ended the transmission shortly after, and returned to his normal form. The both of them walked out of the room and to the pilot's area of the ship. Azure swiveled her chair around to face Acacius.
"Was that you back there?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, the screaming, and those lights, and the fact it compromised some of this ships' systems for a second."
"Vader told me to bleed this kyber crystal, I had no idea it would do that... I'm sorry Azure."
"Nahhhh don't worry about it, 8 minutes of Oxygen left made stuff more fun trying to turn everything back on, I was just curious. Anyway, new orders?" Azure said, turning to the command console.
"Yes actually, set coordinates for Musor-2 in the Alpha Centauri system." Acacius said as he walked out of the room and back into the cockpit of the ship, sitting down.
"Yes, right away, Renix." She said, pressing some buttons on the control panel before pulling the lever at her side and shooting the ship into hyperspace.