Maul: Legacy of Shadows

Chapter 27: Cycle of Pain

***Year 3,957 BBY***

For months Bao-Dur and his new master Sorus Syn traveled the cosmos, secretly finding young Force Sensitives who were disillusioned against the Jedi.  Each one jumped at the chance to gain the power Sorus offered them, and Bao-Dur was surprised at how easily she could persuade them.  It was as if she were the personification of charisma and false charm. However, the Sith apprentice knew that their activities would spark the interest of the Jedi Council, who had a habit of stamping out the Dark Side before it could reach its zenith in power and influence.

Before long their new students numbered nearly fifty eager individuals, and Sorus commanded her new cult to travel to the world of Malachor, her crowning achievement after the Hundred-Year Darkness millennia ago.  Arriving on the dead world after so long, the dead petrified bodies were all still fresh memories for Bao-Dur.  It was he who had caused the world to nearly end in a brilliant flash of power.  The new recruits paid the endless sea of dead no mind, blinded by the prospect of power that was promised by Sorus.

For her part, Sorus felt completely at home as the temple seemed to welcome her, pulsating with power at their arrival.  It was her creation after all.  One that could bend the forces of time and space with the power of the Dark Side.  She called it the Mass Shadow Generator.  It was both a weapon and tool.  Yet for over a millennium it sat unused, until a wayward Jedi activated it for the first time.  Sorus looked at her apprentice and smiled, she had chosen her pupil well.  Bao-Dur simply bowed at his master, the screams of the dead haunting him every moment he stood on the surface of the dead world.

"Well then, let's get to work," Sorus said softly, placing a hand on the temple's exterior.

***Year 3,938 BBY***

It had been nearly twenty years since Surik had died trying to save him.  Bao-Dur woke up with another nightmare of her falling and each time the ground shook from the Force emanating from within him.  Only a few moments had passed and a knock on his bedchamber door echoed through his room and through the Force, Bao-Dur could sense it was his master coming to check on him as she always did after his nightmares.

Before he could give permission, she let herself in with an exhausted look on her face.  In just under two decades, Sorus had seemed to age nearly three times that amount.  Possibly a side effect of her resurrection Bao-Dur thought.  Her power never waned; and in fact, seemed to grow stronger every day.  It was as if the Dark Side power she commanded could barely be contained in a mortal form.

Slowly walking and sitting next to apprentice on his bed, she coughed loudly as her posterior touched his soft blanket.  Bao-Dur sat silently, the image of his former Jedi master still etched within his mind.  Sorus could feel the conflict raging within her apprentice, placing a withered hand on his shoulder trying to reassure him of his commitment to the Sith.

"It's almost time, my friend," Sorus said in a raspy voice; one that had been corrupted through years of Dark Side chanting and incantations.

Cryptic as usual, Bao-Dur thought to himself.  Her words and philosophies had twisted their students into obedient slaves, and each one was dedicated wholly to the two Sith Lords.  She was wise to never teach their pupils more than what was necessary for her goals and plans, thereby assuring none would gain enough power to challenge her rule.

Only one student had proven to be a problem, a young impressionable lad named Momin.  His morbid fascination with the dead petrified bodies that littered Malachor disgusted even Sorus herself.  She had caught him secretly studying how the temple functioned, and it was a secret Sorus would never allow to escape.  Using her obedient acolytes, she had him imprisoned on a forgotten world, as the Force explained to her in visions that he would play an integral role in the survival of the Sith.