I do not own MLP or Star Wars.
Day 38 in Equestria
They had made it to the mouth of the cave and finally decided to enter the cave all at once to ensure strength in numbers, they each took their first steps into the cave and will soon learn a dark secret thousands of years older than even Celestia herself.
Celestia and Luna were persuaded to stay behind and let the others deal with it. Besides, how can Equestria rule without their main figureheads.
Deimos led the way as they trekked through the tunnels, his hand at his lightsaber if anything were to attack them.
"My, it's very dim," Rarity observed.
"Well we are in a cave, of course it's going to be dark," Cameron said, carrying his oversized weapon.
"Wait, I see something," Deimos said, he looked closely to see a small dimly lit lamp hanging from the ceiling.
Twilight charged up her horn to light the lamp, but her power faded as soon as she cast the spell.
"Strange, magic doesn't work here," Twilight whispered to herself.
Deimos then decided to shoot force lightning at it, which flew up and struck the lantern, the lightning was then transferred to the next lantern, and like a current the lightning began chaining itself to each nearby lantern until the entire cave was surrounded by crackling blue light.
"Let's keep going," he responded, Twilight stared in shock.
"How were you able to do that?" she asked him.
"I guess magic is nullified here, clearly meant for force users only."
They spotted a small altar at the end of the cave, Deimos walked over to it and spotted a note in old galactic basis.
"What does it say?" Twilight asked him.
"It requires a drop of each of our blood," Deimos said.
"That can be arranged," Hano took out his vibroknife and handed it to Deimos, who made a nick in his hand and squeezed it into the empty bowl.
Hano activated the vibroknife to clear off any blood and did the same with his hand as well.
The process repeated until it was the ponies turn. The white and yellow-orange stallions did not hesitate until it came to the six mares.
"N-no," Fluttershy whimpered, Deimos sighed and concentrated on the six.
"What're ya do- OW!!!" Applejack yelled as a small cut appeared on leg, a drop of blood hovering to the bowl, the same things happened with the others.
"What did you do!" Rainbow said, hovering at Deimos.
"Just a mild use of Shatterpoint, it allowed me to see any weak points in your body, so I temporarily exposed them and acquired a drop of your equestrian blood," Deimos explained to them with a smug grin on his face.
As the last drop touched the rest, the bowl emptied and the entire place shook.
"Earthquake!" Pinkie screamed and hid under a bowl too small for her but she somehow managed to fit inside (another mental note: attempt to understand Pinkie will result in total brain failure).
A blue figure appeared over one of the projectors, revealing a man wearing a long black cloak and a hood, along with a lightsaber strapped to his side.
"Greetings, I am Darth Nekros, council member of the Sith Empire during the Great Galactic War, if you are watching this then I am already dead. I leave this message to those who find this place and discover where I have been buried," the man spoke.
"Interaction Mode on", a voice blared out, the man looked at each of them.
"Well well, I see. From the DNA samples that you have given me: Deimos, the fallen Sith; Sana, the forsaken Jedi; Cera, the wife; Maul, betrayed by his master; Ahsoka, forbidden by the council; Jeyeva, the deceived king; the Terror Legion, loyal to the end; the Elements of Harmony, Equestria's greatest champion since the rule of Queen Faust; Flash Sentry, the romance of Twilight; and Shining Armor, the brother, ruler, and former guard," he announced, Deimos was dumbfounded by two things.
Twilight has a brother?!?
"How? This had happened three-thousand years ago, how can you know of us?"
"I assume you have asked about my logic, but that is for you to find out as you pass my trials of knowledge," Nekros said, waving his arm.
As he said it, several doors opened.
"Each one takes a different path, oh and the Elements (and guards) are ineligible to pass the trials, so-" another door opened.
"They take the easy way out," he said, "If anyone else tries to take this path, then they will perish."
Suddenly each door suddenly possessed the names of each person who will take that path.
"What are you waiting for? Enter," Nekros said with a grin on his face as he watched each one walk their own paths.
Jeyeva:
The Kaleesh kept walking through the path that he has been given, contemplating the man's words.
How had this man known about my past? This must be some sort of trickery! he thought.
"No trickery, no games. Just the Force," an elderly feminine voice whispered nearby, Jeyeva's hand reached for his lightsaber.
"No need for that, here let me see," a pair of glowing eyes and a hand appeared, floating over.
"(Why?)" Kaleesh growled in his native tongue.
"My master has spoken of your past, 'the deceived king'. And a king must always have a symbol," it spoke.
Jeyava squinted his eyes at it until he finally unhooked his lightsaber, the hand took it with the eyes inspecting it.
"My, this weapon has seen much death and yet it was used to rule with peace, quite ironic is it not?" the voice began coughing until he realized it was laughing.
"(Quite so, but I kept myself from the curse of tyranny)," he argued.
"I will believe you, but I also have something to show you," the hands snapped their fingers and they suddenly formed into a magnificently beautiful woman wrapped in Sith robes.
"(Beauty will not deceive me,)" Jeyeva said.
"Oh this? Ah, this was when I was younger, but this is not it," she said, her voice more clear and matching the appearance of her age.
She beckoned to his, "Follow me."
And so he did.
They continued walking until they reached a small shrine matching Kaleesh architecture.
"My master had told me to build these shrines but I did not know why, perhaps you are the reason," she pointed to a long box that laid in the center of the place.
"(What is in here?)" he said as he walked over and investigated the box.
"Each person who is to enter the trials of knowledge is to receive a gift if they pass," she replied.
"(And I passed? We only talked the whole way through,)" he said, dumbfounded.
"You are one of the easy ones, your mind is clear but your fighting has rusted. Take Deimos as your master and he will train you in the ways of the Force along with his other students," she said.
Jeyeva hesitated, but he had given it thought, Deimos is a fine warrior and I have respected him, maybe I do need to learn some things from him.
"That's correct," she smiled.
"(I do not tolerate you hearing my thoughts,)" he said.
"I'm not hearing them, my master is. I am just saying what he wanted me to say," she then disappeared.
Jeyeva stared at where she used to be until he focused on the box, he carefully opened it and stared at his gift.
It was a staff about as tall as him. It was black and made of polished metal..
He lifted it up and tested its weight until his finger slipped on a button at one of the ends of the pole.
Immediately a lightsaber blade appeared out of the end of the staff.
No, a saberpike.
Jeyeva smiled, Every king must have a scepter.
Ahsoka:
"What is on your mind, young one?" Nekros appeared before the Togruta Jedi.
"Leave me alone, and I am not young," she grumbled at him.
"That is true in body, but what about in mind?" he floated towards her.
"What are you saying?" she looked at him in annoyance.
"You are still the same child that left the Jedi council, the same as your when you were with your old master, Skywalker," Nekros snickered.
"What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
"Just his fate to this day, but that is none of your concern-" he said.
"It is my concern. He was killed in Knightfall wasn't he?" she asked..
"Keep telling yourself that, Tano," he cackled.
"What happened?"
"Why should I tell you?" he asked thoughtfully.
"Just tell me!" she yelled.
""There is no emotion, there is only peace'," the Sith lord mocked.
"I'm not a Jedi anymore!" she yelled at him, who just grinned.
"Well you have finally admit that," he said.
Ahsoka's eyes widened, "Hey I didn't mean-"
"What? That you won't abandon it's teachings and philosphy? Bah! You're a Jedi without an allegiance!" he accused.
Ahsoka calmed down, "You may be right about that," she mused.
"And for my first statement against you?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You are still clinging to the past like a spider on a shredded web, you think you can fix it but it will always stay the same no matter how hard you try," he pointed out.
"I do not!" she yelled out him, her fingers itching for the familiar hold of the lightsaber in her hand.
"Yes, you are," Nekros said.
"And how would you know this?"
"Oh Tano, I'm surprised you don't know: 'there is no ignorance, there is knowledge'," he continued to mock the Jedi code.
"I just said I wasn't a Jedi!" she finally took her lightsaber and began slashing at him.
"Such fire, such passion. Speaking of passions, Maul..."
"Shut up!"
"'There is no passion, there is serenity'," he continued as he was dodging all of her swings.
"'There is no chaos, there is harmony'," Nekros used the force to shut off her lightsaber and lifted her into the air.
"I thought you said you were dead!" she yelled as she was high in the air.
"What I do here will affect your present time, my abilities are extraordinary beyond any Sith in my time, I am Lord Nekros, the patron Sith of time," he announced.
"Wow, narcissist much?" she rolled her eyes and she was let go.
"You're not surprised by my abilities? Even in your present status?" he asked.
Ahsoka looked at him and grinned, "There is no death, there is the Force."
She is a clever one, Nekros thought as he looked at her, "You have passed the test so far, but what have you learned from this?"
"Not to trust crazy Sith time-wielding holograms?"
Nekros chuckled, "No, you have admitted that you have no allegiance to the Jedi anymore, yet you recite the code. You no longer are tied by the burden of a strict group, their code is your philosophy and therefore your freedom, goodbye."
And with that he shut off.
The Terror Legion:
When the doors opened, there resided one name for each person.
But for this door, it was the entire T-Legion. For they worked as one.
"We best be on our guard, this place can spring a trap any minute," Gale commanded.
"Oh is there a problem?" Nekros appeared out of then air, prompting them to point their weapons at him.
"Don't be absurd, those things can't hurt me, I'm already dead," he cackled.
"What do you want?" De'ien asked him.
"Oh just nothing really, I want you to pass a test for me and I will let you go," he responded.
"How will we know you're not lying?" Hano asked him.
"I give you my word, just solve this mission professionally and you will be free. If you don't then my task will kill you," he closed his eyes and disappeared.
As they walked on, they saw a metal door that stopped them in their tracks.
"Is this a joke?" Cameron asked the others.
"I think not, I think he's trying to test how we will get through; for all we know, there could be a hundred Old Republic Sith acolytes waiting for us on the other side if we went in blasters blazing," Warren hypothesized.
"Good call, I say we stick some explosives and kill whatever resides on the other side of the door," Cameron said.
"Guys."
"How about we just weld it open, it'll be more silent and less wasteful of resources," Scrap replied.
"Guys."
"How about I just hardwire this thing so we don't have to do either," Warren decided.
"Hey guys?"
"That's stupid, how can you even-"
"GUYS!!!"
"WHAT IS IT!!!" everyone yelled at Hano.
"The door was unlocked," Hano said, opening the door.
... ... ...
"Why didn't we open the door in the first place?"
"He did say that this was a test," Hano pointed out.
"Nevermind that, we must keep moving," Gale said, leading his group forward beyond the door.
Hano, the last clone of the Sa Cuis genetic template, joined the Legion to protect his identity, Nekros thought to himself.
The group was instantly transported to a large rocky and volcanic area, they immediately knew where they were.
"Mustafar, our first mission as the T-Legion," Gale whispered.
"When we fought alongside the 501st to kill Gizor Dellso," De'ien said.
They immediately went to work, shooting down any droids in sight.
"Scrap, get closer and fire your scattergun at those battle droids, Hunter will fire and provide long range support, the rest of you will hold our positions and draw fire and attract them," Gale commanded, lost in the memory.
"Seems a little risky sir," Cameron said.
"That will be noted, but concentrate on the remaining CIS droids," he yelled.
"Sir yes sir!" they shouted and began their commands.
Scrap tore apart the droids with his scattergun while Hunter began picking off droid heads, De'ien, Cameron, and Warren added as backup support while Hano silently picked off the droids and geonosians one by one.
Gale's group fought fiercely for hours until they heard one of the clone troopers say, "Dellso is finished Lord Vader."
The entire scene disappeared, leaving them in the cave again as they continued their trek throughout the tunnels.
Gale Yahn, former Corellian Bounty hunter, now leader of the Terror Legion through rising of the ranks.
Their next mission was to fight against rogue clone troopers, De'ien saved the Legion from several blaster wounds using vast medical knowledge to fix their injuries.
Former doctor De'ien Rotasha, signed up as medic to help those that have been wounded in the battlefield, fortunately ended up being assigned to the Terror Legion.
Cameron held back rebel threats using a torn off blaster turret and chain gun while the others were forced to hide.
The heavy weapons soldier Cameron, bullied in school and built himself to be an immovable rock, the Imperial Army was perfect for him.
Scrap quickly fixed a broken transport ship to help his fireteam leave a failed mission gone wrong using only a fusion cutter and a wrench.
Engineer Scrap, taught by his father to take apart and put back together broken speeders and make droids of his own, his knack for mechanics proved invaluably useful during several battle situations.
Warren used his abilities to hack into a pirates droid's central relay system and ordered them to attack their own crew.
Saboteur Warren, The most ruthless out of all of them, his lust for deception to his enemies and ambushes have proven useful despite the fact that he was faithful unto his allies and served them with respect.
Hunter fought against corrupted stormtroopers and hesitated to fire after they had used a little girl as a bodyshield, but he fired anyway. This girl was now his foster daughter living with his wife in Imperial Center since she was a homeless orphan.
Hunter was the most kind of all of the soldiers, his reasons for joining the army was unknown but was still a excellent marksman and loyal soldier to his superiors.
Nekros stood at the last door, awaiting them.
"Take off your helmets," he said.
Gale took off his helmet, revealing a man in his early 30's with buzz cut brown hair and thin face.
Scrap was next, a man with pitch black hair and a goatee, his face showing a scar over his prosthetic eye.
Hunter's face was that of a clone's face, but the same age as in the Clone wars.
Cameron had red hair with scars covering the majority of his face, yet it had looked as normal as any other man.
Warren had mismatched eyes, blond hair, and a missing right ear lobe.
Hano was bald, his face expressed in a permanent sneer, but a loyal member of the crew.
Finally Dei'ien took off the helmet, revealing a Zabrak woman with brown hair up to her shoulders and the recognizable horns that jotted across her head.
Nekros looked at each of them, "I have been studying you and have found you all quite fascinating, but now here is your final test, pass it and you may go."
He waved his hand at the door and disappeared.
Instantly the entire cave seemed to have melted down to form an Imperial room.
"This isn't..." Gale said, at loss for words.
"No, not this memory!" De'ien yelled.
"Be ready guys, I hope we survive this one," Hano said.
It's the memory, this is my fighting chance! he thought.
The door burst open and revealed a figure clad in black, wearing a helmet that made his breathing resonate throughout the entire room.
Vader.
No one moved, no one even breathed.
Until Gale fired.
Vader immediately activated his lightsaber and brought it down, but Gale leaped out of the way, the others opened fire on Vader but to no avail, for he blocked and dodged every move they made.
The Sith swung at them, each trooper barely missing the blade.
They remembered this memory, the elimination of the Terror Legion after Lord Deimos's exile.
Vader cut down several other troopers around him.
"Men, over here!" Gale shouted, the group took cover behind some construction equipment.
"What should we do?" Cameron asked.
Gale ran the scenarios through his mind, knowing who was to die to protect them from Vader.
But this was a vision, they could control their futures.
"Alright, I need Warren and Scrap to rig some of the explosives to disorientate Vader, Cameron has to distract Vader with heavy fire, Hunter and De'ien will provide secondary fire, Hano, you need to fight Vader directly, we'll help you," he said.
"Sir yes sir!" they said.
At once they began their plan, but so far none of it had succeeded.
Warren and Scrap had riggen the explosives, but Vader used the force to survive the blast, Cameron fired mercilessly at Vader with a heavy cannon, but Vader blocked with the force, and Vader merely blocked their blaster bolts as Hunter and De'ien fired at him.
But what he failed to notice was Hano leaping off a box and sucker punching him in the mask, causing the dark lord to stagger.
Vader force pushed the soldiers away, personally dealing with Hano.
"So you have survived the slaughter I have caused against your brothers, you will join them in death," Vader replied in a monotone voice.
"I plan to survive this Vader," Hano said, dodging a strike from Vader.
Darth Vader had swung his saber at him several times, but fortunately Hano dodged every move out of pure luck until Vader had him trapped in a corner.
"You are mine now," he said as he finally brought down his lightsaber on Hano.
But the blade never touched him, as it was being blocked by another.
And it's wielder was Hano himself.
"You forget Vader, I am a clone of Sa Cuis, I never leave this behind," he said as he pushed back Vader, striking and blocking Vader's every move.
Hano spun and kicked Vader in the chest, narrowly avoiding Vader's control panel, Vader then lifted him and slammed him into a crate full of thermal detonators. Hano grabbed a grenade, pressed the button and threw it at him; Vader grabbed the explosive with the force and crushed it, but what he didn't know was that this gave Hano enough time to take his blaster and fire it at the rest of the grenades, causing each and every one of them to explode on impact, causing Vader to fly across the room with several of his mechanical parts damaged. Vader's anger was the only thing keeping him alive, knowing that Hano was just extremely lucky, he would never let him get away with that again.
Hano finally leaped and brought down his blade to finish Vader once and for all, but the dark lord grabbed him with the force and slammed him into the wall. He walked over to him with his lightsaber in his hand.
"I will enjoy torturing you, Sa Cuis," Vader muttered.
"My name is Hano!" he yelled, but Vader had brought back his blade to strike.
But someone new entered and attempted to tackled Vader, which ultimately failed.
Vader grabbed the newcomer by the throat and stabbed her, giving Hano the opportunity to punch Vader and push him back, he grabbed the soldier's dog tag and ran, the other soldiers finally regained their senses and followed Hano out of the room.
Hano closed the doors with the force and used his lightsaber to weld it shut, taking his blaster and shooting the controls.
That should hold him in there for a while, he thought.
The door bent at an odd angle.
Or maybe not, he thought again, "Guys, let's go!" he yelled, running to the hangar bay that held their spacecraft.
He looked at the dog tag that he plucked off the soldier that saved his life.
Yara Nanio.
The memory literally faded and the team stood in confusion, Nekros suddenly appeared again.
"What was that?" Gale asked the Sith.
"An important lesson that you will know later on, 'no matter what you do, some things are just meant to happen, even with the interference of others'," he observed each of their emotions; confused, puzzled, angry, "In other words, some things are just meant to happen," he said to each of them.
Hano looked down and suddenly realized that he was still holding his old lightsaber, a gift from Nekros.
"Commander Gale, you may be the leader, but your assassin plays a big role in this game of chance," he said, finally disappearing for good.
"Keep the saber, it'll do you good," his voice echoed without a body.
Sana:
Despite her lack of eyes, eyesight was nothing compared to the force.
She saw a man behind her, she unsheathed her lightsaber and swung her lightsaber at him.
Nekros grabbed her lightsaber and deactivated it, she looked at her lightsaber in surprise.
"Why do all my meetings with you people start like this?" he asked, annoyed by her actions.
"I will not ask how you did that," she replied.
"Quick to the point, I like it," he grinned at her in admiration, he waved his hand and a vision of a younger Sana at the center of the Jedi Council, awaiting what they were about to say.
"You have learned much about the force haven't you, Sana?" Master WIndu asked her.
"Yes, my master," she said, her face showing no emotion.
"Aware of your completion of the trials of knighthood, are you?" Master Yoda asked.
"That as well, master," she answered.
"What should we do with her?" Master Kenobi said, puzzled about the circumstances.
"Well she is one of the youngest to ever reach knighthood. At the age of 12, I am impressed," Master Plo Koon complimented, but she still showed no emotion.
"I only aim to support the Republic and the Jedi Order," she responded.
"Well that settles it," Plo Koon said.
"But we still must decide if she is ready to become a Jedi Knight," Ki-Ad-Mundi said.
"Very well, padawan, you are dismissed," Kenobi said.
"Thank you masters," she said, walking away.
Nekros looked at the memory in his hand, "You really were a bright young student, weren't you?"
Sana looked at him, "If you are trying to sway my allegiance to the Jedi, you are poorly mistaken."
"No, but you have changed, and what caused that change?"
"Deimos," she replied.
"You have become his ally despite him being a Sith, and earlier you tried to kill him in the woods where you first crashed," Nekros said.
"He was only temporarily an ally. Besides, you just said he was Sith," she smirked.
Nekros shook his head in regret, "The Sith in my time were backstabbing traitors, I never knew the Jedi would stoop so low," he said.
"But he was Sith, it's not the same!"
"But you have no idea of who he was before," this time he smirked.
"Are you saying he was a Jedi before?" Sana said.
"How else would he recognized Discord if the spirit of chaos was a Jedi himself."
"How-"
"Blood sample, current biography, remember?" he gave her a malicious grin.
"Right, but how?" she asked.
"You have heard of curiosity? And do you know what happens when you put that with the dark side?" he said as if he was talking to a baby.
"He became a Sith, I get it," she looked at him in annoyance.
"Now you're catching on quick, I can tell that we'll get along," he clapped his hands.
"Not happening," she said.
"You're correct, and for that, you will not require a gift of mine. You will find the exit as you keep walking, farewell," he said as he disappeared before she could ask, leaving her in the cave.
Irritable Jedi, how worst can this get? Nekros said to himself as he watched and observed Sana's behavior.
Cera:
Nekros watched as the Sith Pureblood woman walked through the cave.
This will be interesting, he thought to himself, he vanished and reappeared near Cera.
"Cera Lai, an endangered species and wife of a Sith Lord," he observed.
"If this is your idea of greeting a Sith's wife, then you have a lot to learn," she said, frowning at his attempt.
"I do not care, but it has been a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said, bowing in false respect.
Cera raised an eyebrow, "Just get to the point."
"You were with Deimos for a very long time, from Korriban to your disappearance, correct?" he asked her.
"Yes, but not intimately until the formation of the Galactic Empire, but Kane was my best friend until my disappearance," she said.
"And what caused your disappearance?"
"I feel you already know the answer," she answered.
"Indulge me then," he said.
"I was kidnapped by Sidious, who had persuaded me to help him as an acolyte, but that changed when I was reunited with Kane, but he was Deimos at that point. The last thing I remembered was seeing Deimos held against a wall by Vader and I was fighting Mara Jade until I was impaled," she replied.
"But do you remember why you're alive, much more how?"
"No."
"You were leverage for Deimos if he were to turn against the emperor and you were brought back from the figurative dead with medical surgery," he breathed.
Cera scowled at his confession to her fate, taking in his words one at a time before shouting, "I am going to kill Sidious!" she growled in anger.
"Not in your condition," he said, grinning like a madman.
"What are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine, " she asked in suspicion.
"Nothing, we are through, take this," he responded quickly, tossing something to her.
She caught it, it was a lightsaber. She activated it, the blade glowed yellow in the dim cave.
"Are you giving me this to distract me from our conversation?" she demanded, sheathing the lightsaber.
He quickly turned around "Yes and no, but I must get going now, goodbye-" he turned his head to face her one last time.
"Oh and congratulations," he said as he disappeared.
Maul:
Maul cautiously walked through the cave's stone floors, his hands at his lightsabers, aware that something could come out and attack him at any moment.
He was half right.
A woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere in mid-air, she floated down the steps and stood just a few feet away from Maul.
"Hello Maul, I am Lord Junus, apprentice to Darth Nekros," she greeted him.
"Get out of my way, I do not need your help," he replied in anger.
"I came because out of all these people in this cave, you are the most conflicted," she said to him.
"What are you talking about?"
"You think that you find yourself surrounded by enemies, but you are unaware that you are in the presence of allies that will help you as you will help them," she answered.
"I do not need your pity," he responded with a growl.
"I'm not pitying you, I am here to help you, to fight against those that seek to oppose you," she said.
That caught his attention, he raised an eyebrow, "Tell me more."
"To pass this trial, you must confront your past, your grief, anger, and regret," she waved a hand and suddenly the cave's surrounding's disappeared and was replace with a large metal rectangular room.
Maul turned to inspect his surroundings, but he saw four silhouetted figures behind the shadows, he drew his lightsaber out.
Out emerged a man with reddish-brown hair and beard, wearing Jedi robes.
Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Darth Maul had a look of pure hatred, "Kenobi."
"Maul, it seems you're alive, what a surprise," Kenobi said with a mischievous smile on his face, angering Maul further.
"I will make you suffer as I have suffered, Jedi," he growled as he swung his lightsaber, connecting with Kenobi's.
"I don't think so," Obi-Wan smirked.
Maul kicked Kenobi, launching him into the wall as he brought it down, only for the Jedi to block it; the Sith kept striking at Obi-Wan, but kept blocking his every strike with a single swish of his saber. Kenobi struck at Mau, but Maul parried the blade and knocked it out of his hands. Kenobi dodged Maul's swings until he managed to reach for his lightsaber and block a near kill strike, he caught Maul off-guard and delivered a blow to the face, causing the Zabrak to stagger until he regained posture. Maul then ran at Obi-Wan and struck, his blade connecting with his, caught in a saber lock, Maul let one of his hands swiftly reach for his Darksaber and activated it.
The black blade pierced his abdomen, causing the Jedi to fall over as he slowly began to die.
Maul took his lightsaber and activated it, he held the blade about his head and brought it down.
But when he looked down, he had struck nothing, Kenobi was gone, vanished into thin air.
He turned around to see the second figure emerge from the shadows.
"Brother?" Maul exclaimed in disbelief as he saw his brother Savage Opress walking out, his lightsaber activated.
"You are not my brother!" the Dathomirian Zabrak roared in rage as he swung at Maul, who narrowly missed the blade, "You left me to die in the hands of Sidious!"
Maul couldn't think of what to say, his mind unclear of what to say.
But he then found his voice, "Sidious disoriented me and you had to fight him alone, there was nothing I could do."
"But what happened to your training?" the third shadow emerged, revealing Darth Sidious, "You have become weak, you are saving the helpless and those that cannot fend for themselves, that is not the way of the Sith."
"Then I am no longer Sith, I am Maul and nothing less," he answered.
"So naive. Savage, finish him off."
"Gladly. Master," Savage replied, swinging at Maul, who had kept dodging his brother's moves.
He has joined forces with the Sith Lord? I am sorry but I have no other choice, Maul thought in regret, he threw himself at Savage, dodging his strikes until he ducked a blade and activated his lightsaber, running his blade through Savage's chest.
"I am sorry brother, you have forced my hand to do something I did not wish to do," Maul whispered in regret.
Savage's eyes rolled up in his head and collapsed, dead.
Maul heard a cackle behind him, he turned to face Sidious, "You have struck down your brother in cold blood, you are ready to become my apprentice again."
Maul looked at his cybernetic legs, then at Sidious.
"No, it was not Kenobi that did this to me. It was you! You took me when I was young, trained me to be a weapon to do your bidding, but in the end it was your fault!" Maul roared in rage, activating his lightsabers and charging the Sith.
Maul acted on pure anger to fight Sidious, dodging and weaving through his attacks and attacking where he was open.
Finally Maul knocked Sidious's lightsaber out of his hand and decapitated him before could resort to any torturous forms of the force.
Maul turned to face his last challenger, who finally stepped out of the shadows.
Maul's eyes widened in shock, "No, it can't be-"
The man that was facing Maul was... Maul.
Maul looked at the man that was him, who unholstered his lightsaber and activated both blades.
It came to his realization that this was Darth Maul before the 'incident' on Naboo.
Maul dodged the impostor and activated his sabers as well to block both of the impostor's blades at the last second, he sent a kick at the impostor, but he caught it and flung him into one of the walls, he shifted to the right to dodge an oncoming blade, he grabbed the hilt and smashed it against the impostor's head, but he regained his senses and sent a swift kick to his jaw, sending him to the floor. Maul grabbed and activated the nearest blade, the Darksaber, and blocked another swing.
He couldn't keep this up forever, he was bound to make a mistake since he was literally fighting himself.
The impostor finally force pushed Maul into a spike that impaled Maul in his stomach, causing him to yell in pain.
The doppelganger walked up to Maul, kicking away his weapons and pointed his blade at his neck, he raised it above his head, ready to strike.
The blade came down, but it was blocked by an outside force.
Maul looked up to see Ahsoka, no- a vision of her.
"Need some help horn-head?" she replied casually, a very accurate vision of her.
"Surprisingly, yes," Maul grabbed Ahsoka's hand as she pulled him up, Maul ignored the pain in his stomach.
They both ran at the impostor, each of them both struck with each of their lightsabers, but the copy blocked them both. Ahsoka leaped over his head and attempted to strike, but the fake Maul turned around and deflected the blow with a slash from behind. Maul activated his Darksaber and began savagely striking at the impostor's lightsaber, hoping to lessen his grip and quickly kill him.
Maul finally made a cut into the other's shoulder, but he ignored it, he slashed at his lightsaber hilt, but the fake quickly moved it so it would strike against it's red blade.
The impostor finally kicked Maul into another.
"I will finally finish you and present your head to my master, weakling," he finally said as he raised his saber to strike him down, but a yellow saber emerged from his chest, he looked down at it and fell to the floor as the blade retracted.
He looked up to see Ahsoka holstering her Shoto saber; she smiled, nodded, and vanished.
The room dissolved, leaving him and Junus, she nodded to him, "You have passed, you have finally let go of your conflict."
Maul turned to face her, "What do you mean?"
"You killed Kenobi, proving that you can beat him, but he was not one of the main sources of your conflict; you were forced to kill your own brother, not out of pleasure, but you knew that you couldn't save him, that the Emperor is too influential that no one can escape his powerful grip; you killed a weakened form of the Emperor, but you are not ready to face his full wrath as a single individual; and you finally fought against your inner demons, who you were before against who you are now fighting against who you were before, but you needed to rely on your most trusted friend, Ahsoka Tano," she explained.
"Ahsoka is not my friend," he replied coldly.
"No, but you are something more, and you can be more than that," she said.
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you... love Ahsoka?" she laughed.
"What kind of question is that?" Maul growled.
"A perfectly rational answerable question, now answer," she demanded.
"But we have only met!"
"Yes, now I am no believer of 'love at first sight', but you two have been the closest since that Nautolan girl at the Orsis Academy," she said.
Maul thought about her, Kilindi Matako, and how he killed everyone there.
"Now answer my question," she said.
"I prefer not to tell you."
"Excuse me?"
"I will not tell you, I have been imprisoned by a Sith and I will not be interrogated over feelings," Maul said, his emotions unreadable.
"And why not?"
"Because I am a monster, I killed and butchered innocents and you expect her to forgive me if I did love her? And if you were alive, I would kill you for asking such a question," Maul said in anger.
Junus sighed in annoyance, "Please don't be dark and brooding, it gets on my nerves, but you will learn to see past that very soon."
She spread her arms so that they pointed towards the cave walls.
"And since you are the most conflicted, you will receive the greatest of honors," she said, holding out a lightsaber that floated just a few inched off of her hand, Maul carefully took it out and inspected it.
It was Savage Opress's lightsaber.
"Go on, test it out," she said.
"I prefer not to, at least not yet."
"If you insist, now for my personal final gift, but you must answer my question, there is no right or wrong answer," she grinned darkly.
"Then ask," Maul said impatiently.
"Do you wish to be redeemed?" she asked.
Maul was confused, "Excuse me?"
"I asked you a question. Do you wish to be redeemed?"
"What for?"
"You have slaughtered hundreds to get what you need or even what you want, you insist that this was the work of your master, now that may have been true until your fatal injury on Naboo. Even then you killed just for your missions while serving no master just for personal revenge against those who wronged you. Now, I give you one chance, on my word as a Sith Lord, do you wish to be redeemed?" she asked finally.
Maul thought about it. Those he had killed were gone, but every time something new appears; Pre Visla, Sidious, how long until someone new appears? He had no other choice.
"Yes," he said.
"Good, nothing of your emotions will change, but you have accepted the burden to be lifted from you and start anew," she said, concentrating on the force until a violet aura appeared around Maul, it lifted him off the ground while enshrouding him in it until it finally dispersed.
Gravity returned and Maul fell, dropping to one knee.
Pain shot up his leg.
Maul's eyes snapped open, Pain?
He finally processed the thought that he had felt pain in his leg, he lifted one of the pant's sleeves that he was now wearing.
Maul looked and saw a tattooed red and black leg.
The Zabrak was in shock, contemplating what had just happened to him. His entire lower half of his body was back, as if it was never separated from him in the first place.
He looked at Junus, but she was gone.
He got up but he tripped and fell, he cursed himself and got back up, trying his best to walk normally until he finally succeeded, which only took a matter of minutes.
Maul strapped the lightsaber to his belt and continued to walk throughout the cave.
I may have been forgiven, but I will find you, Kenobi.
Deimos:
It was finally Deimos's turn in this forsaken cave.
The Sith Lord trudged through the rocky ground, eager to leave the cave.
Nekros appeared before him sitting cross-legged near a small cliff, "Salutations, Lord Deimos."
Deimos unhooked one of his lightsabers, the curved-hilt variant, and turned it on, the saber just inches away from Nekros's face, but he didn't seem to care.
Instead the lightsaber flew out of Deimos's hand and into his own.
"I thought you were just a hologram," Deimos replied normally.
"True, but sometimes a hologram isn't always a hologram," he said, inspecting the saber before snapping it into several different pieces.
"Hey!"
"Be quiet, you were never meant to use this, besides, never had use for Makashi, you always favored Juyo did you not?" Nekros asked.
Deimos looked at him with intrigued eyes, "True, but it's always good to practice," he said, activating both of his other lightsabers.
But those lightsabers flew into Nekros's hands, but instead of breaking them, they disappeared.
"You will not need lesser blades to assist you in your trial, but there is one you need," Nekros said with a evil grin on his face.
Deimos grabbed his emergency saber from the back of his belt and looked at it, "I refrain from using this one."
"Why, terrible accident with the blade?"
"More or less," Deimos said, activating the blade.
Nekros stared at the blade, watching the red saber glow in the darkness of the cave.
"That's better, now-" Nekros unhooked his lightsaber, activating it glowed in an unsettling red-black hue.
"-We fight," Nekros said as he swung down on Deimos, who brought it up to deflect the blade. Deimos tilted his blade so Nekros's saber would fall from the momentum, Deimos then kicked Nekros to the floor and stabbed him through the chest.
Nekros then died, but his body shimmered turned into that of a combat droid.
"You killed a low powered droid," Nekros said, he snapped his fingers and a dozen new droids appeared.
"Let's see how long it will take to break you," Nekros cackled.
Deimos raised his long-hilt lightsaber to equal level with his arms, "I'm willing to test that as well."
Each droid had their own individual hand-crafted lightsaber, each made up of different blade colors and designs.
All of them ran at him at once, but Deimos did not hesitate. He rose off the ground, his body curled up and released a powerful wave of force energy, knocking most of them back.
Deimos threw his lightsaber at the ones that kept standing, bisecting each of the five droid from their waists. He watched as the other seven got up, eager to face the Sith Lord.
"Would you like to know a little bit more about me? I'll take that as a yes. Let me begin my story. I was a Sith Lord, Darth Nekros, after the death of one of the Sith, I was offered a seat by Darth Imperius, Dark Lord of the Sith years after he had defeated Darth Thanaton," Nekros began, watching on a small cave in the wall as Deimos blocked three different saber strikes simultaneously.
"I honestly had been incompetent during my seat of power at the time, so I was sent on a mission to assassinate a Republic officer in the unknown regions, little did I knew that they had just wanted me to die so they could fill in a new seat for power, so I crash-landed here because one of them rigged one of the propulsion engines to explode, so my story began when I landed here," Nekros said, Deimos caught one off guard and vertically cut it into two.
"The natives, the Equestrians, were a primitive race, lead by King and Queen Alicorns, Faust and Crag," Deimos shot lighting at one of the droids until it short out, collapsing into a pile of machinery.
"Faust and Crag were eager to meet me after some ponies had spotted me fighting a dragon, thinking I was a knight of some kind," he continued, watching as Deimos continued blocking and striking to protect himself.
"They were first nervous of my sudden appearance, but after some days later, they had gained my trust and I did with them as well. But over the years there was tension between some of the neighboring countries that bordered Equestria; nothing happened until a small band of Griffins attacked the new city of Canterlot, so Faust and Crag dispatched me to handle the situation as a peacekeeper, but as you can tell, I am a Sith," Nekros said, repeating what happened before.
"I attacked in self-defense after they tried to impale me with a spear, so I did what came naturally, use my lightsaber. When I came back, they were disappointed in what I did, their sadness even managed to pierce my heart with guilt," Deimos impaled a droid quickly and continued fighting.
"But their reign came to a short as King Crag died during the battle of the Changelings, so he was given a hero's funeral. That's when I was no longer hired as a peacekeeper, but an assassin," he closed his eyes as Deimos swept his blade and slashed two other droids.
"Faust was a heroine back before her rule as Queen, leading a battle against the dark force Tirek, but the death shook her, leaving her as a corrupted shell of her former self, but that again all changed when she had birthed two fillies," Deimos blocked another strike and decapitated the droid, watching as it's head clattered to the ground.
"Her heart was thawed after a temporary reign of terror, becoming the leader her people wanted her to be. Now as for me, I had been redeemed from my Sith ways, but I knew my time would sooner or later come to an end. I took the liberty of training Faust's children, not in the force, but in magic. I studied the arts of magic and found that a species such as I or anything else in our galaxy are incapable of using Equestrian magic, but it can be applied to subject of runes, magic can be applied not by the non-magic individual into his or herself, but into the rune artifacts commonly found around the world that were hidden in plain sight. With my knowledge and with Faust teaching her children as well when she wasn't ruling her country at the time, they rivaled even their own mother." Nekros exhaled, as if thinking of the memory instead of just explaining it.
"They had reached nearly the height of their power before an evil had reached this country centuries later, his name was Discord, a force that even I had to wary of, so with permission from Faust, I was sent to investigate this anomaly of a creature," Deimos blocked another saber attack until he and the droid were stuck in a saber lock. Deimos quickly reached and grabbed the droids head with his left hand, and with little effort, crushed the droid's head, the droid froze for a moment until it toppled to the ground with it's head deformed and flickering with little life.
Deimos looked up at the Sith, "But Discord could've been redeemed."
Nekros looked down at him, little interest in his eyes, "But this was not the Discord you knew in your present time, he was a cruel monster who abused his abilities and stopped at nothing just to entertain himself in disgusting, macabre works, they were too sickening for even I to describe. I went to his location and met him, but he was expecting me; I informed him that if he did not leave this place, then I would have to end him, but he laugh at my threat, so he stepped down and quickly fashioned a embarrassingly crude version of my lightsaber but still functioned somehow. We had dueled over the rights of this kingdom, but by the time I was defeated by his dark arts of magic, the two princesses had already found the Elements of Harmony and used them against him, sealing him in stone. I had lain on the battlefield, brutally beaten, but they had saved me from death once again. But I learned that Queen Faust had died from a terminal disease that had taken her into a coma. They were devastated by grief and had considered suicide, so I had no other choice than to wipe their memories of their mother's death and replaced their memories so that she had died heroically in battle in honor of them, giving them a spark of hope, to be like their mother. So at the end of my life, I ordered my apprentice to make this cave in honor of me and those such as you who have come now."
Deimos was bewildered by this man's long history in Equestria but there was something he left out.
"What about your recordings?"
"What recordings?" Nekros grinned.
It finally hit him, this man was no recording, he was a ghost! That explains why there was no flickering or distortions of a hologram.
"You have not transcended into the force?"
"No I have not, but that does not make me a fraud in your forecoming, I have seen you and your group in my dreams and visions."
"But why us?" he asked the ghost.
"You are unlike any other I have seen before, you possess both Sith and Jedi characteristics but swear no allegiance, making you a near-perfect leader like those in my time."
"But why pretend to be a hologram?"
Nekros scrunched his face in thought, "I really don't know, maybe that I have a little bit sense of humor and decided to trick you into thinking I was a hologram just for effect."
Deimos looked at him in amusement, "Well you did fool us."
Nekros then pointed his hand towards a large box that was held by a lock, the lock twisted and turned until it finally opened, revealing a holocron enshrouded in a gray mist, "This is the Nekros Holocron, I want you to view it when the time is right, probably during your apprentices' final training, take good care of it."
Deimos nodded and began to walk off.
"Wait! You forgot these!" Nekros said, holding out his two lightsabers. Deimos walked back and retrieved them.
"Why don't you use your original saber more often?" Nekros said, staring at the elongated hilt hanging from Deimos's belt.
"It's controversial," Deimos simply replied.
"But you are no longer Jedi," Nekros pointed out.
"But I will only use it only in emergencies."
Nekros stroked his wispy beard, "You will need it soon, when your padawans' are in trouble, I foresee it."
Deimos slowly shook his head and left the cave.
Deimos obsevered as each person had left their caves with each of their own personal gift, everyone but Sana, who was a pain in the neck for him.
He looked and expected to see the ponies to be waiting for him, he was right.
What he didn't expect was the oncoming hoof that had met his jaw.