Heir of the Sadow'een

An Assassin's Return : Part II

As soon as there is life there is danger. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

[The Triumphant]

"General?" Commander Wolffe asked General Plo Koon, and the Jedi Master nodded in response.

"I know."

The primary excavation team led by Captain Marx had missed their second half-hour report now, and concern that something had happened to them grew stronger. Commander Wolffe and Master Plo Koon eyed the holo-communicator for a few more moments of silence.

"Recommendations Commander?"

"I would send in the secondary excavation team with recon priorities. We need eyes on the situation."

"Then we will do just that Commander. Deploy the secondary team to the coordinates Captain Marx sent us."

[Planet Hoth, Tundra]

Xyah Crymark was pissed. She had woken up in a strange place to strange soldiers, and worse, she panicked and killed all of them.

'Di'kut!' Xyah cursed herself within her own thoughts, 'You're better than this! You know better!'

Thankfully, once she was outside of the tomb-like area, she instantly recognized she was on Hoth. Xyah had relaxed and her survival instincts and training kicked in automatically. Presently, she was a few kilometers from where she had fled, tucked inside a hole she dug into a snow drift facing away from the bitterly cold winds. Warmed up after about forty minutes had passed, Xyah now felt comfortable enough to scrape away at the snow for a bit more room so she could reach into the satchel for the holocrons.

Staring at them for a few moments, she then pulled off her mask to reveal dark green eyes, rich brown hair that was cut off at the shoulder, and skin that was a lightly tanned color. Then, sighing heavily, Xyah dropped one holocron into the satchel. She knew what that one was: it was an indexed wealth of various information, one she created with the help of her Lord and her Grandmaster. This second one though... this was new and had been placed close to her own holocron. She wiped her brow, then put her mask back on, listening to it click back into place.

With little effort in using the force to open the holocron, it spread open to reveal the image of her Lord. For a split second, the memory of the last time she'd seen him played before her eyes -

"Xyah, do you know why I have summoned you?"

Kneeling before the Dark Lord of the Sith, Xyah was the picture of loyalty to Naga Sadow. He was true Sith, but also half-human and so the mix resulted in him being pale for true Sith. Sadow was dressed in the robes and armor appropriate to his elevated station, Xyah was in the clothing she had awoken in, recently summoned to his side from the temple on Hoth from which the Sadow'een resided and trained in. In response to his question, however, she shook her head lightly.

"No, my Lord."

He nodded then said, "I have put a plan in motion to prepare for the future. This war is ending and shall end in a stalemate. I plan to retreat and then return at a much later date."

This confused Xyah, but in the next moment she found she could not move. Her heartbeat picked up and only became worse when she found she could not speak. It was racing uncontrollably by the time he approached her and laid a hand on her head.

"The universe will be a much different place when we wake up again..."

Then, she blacked out.

Xyah shook herself out of the memory. Sadow had done this, and when she refocused on the image of her Lord cast from the holocron, he began to speak.