Chapter 1
Burning light blue and crimson red light flashed as Meetra Surik's lightsaber collided with Darth Nihilus', her otherwise fatal strike at his neck having been knocked to the side by the starving and weak Sith lord. This provided her assassin turned ally, Visas Marr, an opening to strike at her former master with her own blade. Nihilus twisted to avoid the strike, though she still managed to score a hit on his midsection, the purple plasma burning a hole through his possessed robes. His otherworldly voice filled the room as he screeched in pain. Raising his own lightsaber Nihilus prepared to punish his former apprentice severely for the attack she landed and her utter betrayal but was denied his vengeance as blaster bolts rained on him from the side and he was forced to avoid yet another swing of Surik's blade.
Meetra often disagreed with the Mandalore on many things and as one of the Jedi who fought in the Mandalorian wars she had her reservations about fighting alongside him, but even she had to admit he was an excellent warrior, a decent leader, and one of the best shots with a blaster in her entire crew second only to HK-47, whom she often regretted repairing. There were few others among her crew that she would trust to watch her back in combat more than him.
She also had a hard time trusting Visas at first. Now the Miraluka was an invaluable asset to her in battle, unfalteringly loyal, and one of the few members of her crew that she could honestly consider a friend. Meetra was sad about how much Visas had suffered at the hands of her former master, Darth Nihilus, and how little she valued her own life as a result but perhaps killing him could offer her some form of consolation or closure.
The Lord of Hunger was struggling and on the defensive, all they had to do was keep up their assault and Meetra was sure they would win. Unfortunately, Darth Nihilus seemed to realize this fact himself, and was infuriated by it. Involuntarily he unleashed a scream fueled by the dark side of the force with such intensity that it shook the entire Ravager, momentarily stunning Surik and her companions. Nihilus took this moment to use a Force Whirlwind to knock Meetra and her companions back.
Meetra, who had recovered from Nihilus' scream the fastest and was able to brace herself to some extent, was sent sliding backwards but otherwise managed to remain standing. Caught off guard, Mandalore had lost his grip on his blaster and was sent flying backwards before hitting the ground hard and sliding to a stop. Visas had caught the worst of it by far, managing to hold onto her lightsaber but fracturing several of her bones as she was sent flying into one of the spikes next to the main walkway that ran through the bridge, before falling to the ground.
Meetra took a moment to recover her balance and prepared to charge at the inhuman Sith lord, but hesitated as a foreboding silence filled the bridge of the ship, and an unnatural chill filled the air. Suddenly she heard a thud from behind her, like a body hitting the metal floor of the ship, followed by another and another until there were dozens of thuds at once. Each and every one being followed by a connection to the force being severed and a surge of dark force energy. She looked behind her at the sides of the main walkway down where the "crew" of the Ravager, Darth Nihilus' slaves, normally controlled the ship.
She was horrified to see each and every one of them laying dead on the ground, having been killed by the Sith lord to feed his hunger. While she could no longer hear any thuds, she could feel multitudes of connections to the force being severed all across the ship and even across some of the other ships closest to the Ravager, followed by just as many surges in the Dark Side. Hundreds of lives were severed from the force and were snuffed out, and Nihilus fed upon all of the death it created , healing him and causing his power to grow. He appeared to have lost his sense of reason and sacrificed his entire crew and the crews of several other ships just to kill her and her companions. But, he seemed to be holding back. They were close enough to Telos IV that he could likely consume half or a quarter of the planet at the very least should he want to, so why didn't he?
Meetra suddenly came to a horrifying realization. He hadn't truly lost his reason like she had thought he had, instead he had simply given up on saving the Ravager. Visas had said he believed he could survive even if the ship was destroyed. Now she could only think that he was trying to gather what he estimated was just enough power to kill her and her companions and survive the destruction of the ship while minimizing his chances of causing a panic and Telos IV being evacuated so he could consume as many lives as he could once he arrived. While the population of Telos IV was not large by any means, there were still hundreds of millions to a billion people that lived there. She may have been exiled but she was still the same Jedi that fought to protect innocents from being slaughtered during the Mandalorian war at heart, and with so many innocent lives currently at stake she couldn't afford to lose this!
Content with what he had managed to consume, Darth Nihilus unleashed massive torrents of pure dark force energy, fueled by his rage and hatred, towards Meetra and her still recovering companions, who had only just barely started to stand up, intent on crushing them to death with raw power. The Ravager creaked and groaned in protest under the assault, some of the metal plates that made up the walls and ground being violently torn away and thrown to the back of the bridge along with some of the corpses of Nihilus' former slaves, the rest bent at odd angles, shattered, dented inward, or were crushed. The windows of the bridge, which were designed to be capable of surviving full-scale ship to ship combat, had started to crack under the pressure and threatened to shatter at any moment.
Mandalore struggled futilely as he attempted to force himself off the ground. His T shaped visor cracked under the assault, his left arm snapped and bent to the side at an odd angle causing him to curse in pain and collapse to the ground. He could feel the plates of his armor constricting around him, causing a few of his ribs to crack or splinter, as well as the unseen force trying to flatten him directly. "Sith's blood...! I think we made him angry! You're the Jedi — AH — Do something before he crushes us!" He shouted desperately at Meetra.
Visas had barely managed to stand up, was now laying on the ground unconscious, having hit her head on the ground under the force of Nihilus' attack. One of her legs was now broken and the bone was piercing out of the skin, allowing blood to flow out of the wound and darken the fabric of her black and red robes. Her lightsaber had shut off as the power button was forced into the ground, while the rest of the handle crushed Visas' fingers as she still hadn't released it.
Meetra had managed to use the Force Immunity technique to deflect most of the pressure from Darth Nihilus' attack, though she was finding it much more difficult to move. "I'm working on it!" she shouted back at Mandalore. She couldn't let it end this way, she couldn't let him win. She wouldn't let this thing kill everyone on Telos IV, or her friends! If he was going to try to use the Dark Side to crush them, all she had to do was use the Light Side to counter him. If she was lucky they would cancel each other out, or at least she hoped they would.
She turned her lightsaber off and raised her arms towards Darth Nihilus, closing her eyes she took a deep breath and attempted to clear her mind of all thoughts, distractions, and emotions, though she found this exceedingly difficult given the current circumstances, though the effects of the pontite crystal in her lightsaber did help quite a bit in this regard. After a few moments she finally managed to succeed and, channeling as much as she possibly could, she unleashed a storm of light force energy, intent on forcing back and breaking Darth Nihilus' attack.
The torrent of dark force energy was pushed back by the storm of light force energy, releasing the pressure threatening to crush Meetra Surik and her companions. Halfway between Surik and Nihilus, space seemed to buckle, warp, and stretch under the opposing force energies waging a brutal war for supremacy. Neither side willing to relent or give even an inch. Meetra was growing extremely tired and it was getting harder and harder to keep this up. She had to end this as fast as she could.
Arcs of pure force energy, appearing like bolts of electricity, filled the air as space stretched, twisted, and collapsed inwards. Finally, seeming to have reached its limit, space itself seemed to tear between Meetra and the Sith Lord, surprising them both, causing them to halt their efforts. Neither side had time to react as the tear in space rapidly pulled all four of them in and almost immediately closed behind them.
[Above the Everfree Forest]
Meetra Surik was immediately glad to find that she had not died the moment she was pulled into the tear in space, she was significantly less happy to find that she, Mandalore, and Visas were all falling through the sky above a forest. Mandalore seemed to realize their current situation and was already bracing for impact with the densely packed trees, while Visas was still unconscious and was just falling limply through the air, her lightsaber trailing just behind her. Meetra pulled Visas and her lightsaber closer with the force and grabbed them both. She pointed her back towards the trees and held Visas above her to protect her unconscious friend from the trees and cushion her fall.
Pain seared through the Exile's body as she finally crashed into the tree branches. She felt a few of her ribs crack from the impact, she felt the branches tear, cut, and stab into her flesh, before finally stars flashed before her eyes as her head collided with the hard dirt of the forest floor. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, she mused, she had managed to retain her consciousness. She was just glad the tree branches had slowed her fall enough to keep her from being killed or seriously injured.
Groaning in pain, she gently pushed Visas Marr off of her. She knew she had to stand up, but she really didn't want to, everything hurt. Despite this she forced herself up, cursing under her breath the entire time. She was frustrated to find that she had sprained her ankle during the fall. Leaning against a tree for support, she looked around and took in her surroundings. She instantly determined they were not on Telos IV. Even with the restoration project underway there were no forests this dense on Telos just yet, and she didn't recognize any of the trees or other plants that she could see in her immediate vicinity.
It was then she noticed something truly disturbing. Despite clearly seeing numerous plants, insects, and other life, she couldn't sense any of it through the Force. It was as if her connection to it had been severed all over again which disturbed her greatly. She could still sense Visas and Mandalore, and she had used the force to pull Visas to her as they fell so she knew she was still connected to the Force. That meant no life on this planet had any connection to the Force, instead of her, which was also a highly disturbing prospect.
She was about to investigate further but was pulled out of her thoughts as Mandalore stomped through some bushes holding his broken arm close to his body and came hiking towards them, having landed a bit further off to the side than they had. "Well that could have gone better, huh?" Meetra joked humorlessly as he approached.
"That is an understatement..." He hesitated before continuing. "That thing, her former master, that was no Sith..." He motioned at Visas' unconscious form. "I should know. I have seen Sith, killed Sith. Yes, they are or were dangerous, but they were all still flesh and blood at least... You could still fight them, kill them..."
He was obviously quite shaken by that last battle Meetra realized. He had likely never been in a battle where he was completely helpless before, and brave as he was, it had scared him. She would have to deal with this before it could become a problem later on, but first she had to tend to their physical wounds. Visas was still unconscious and bleeding severely, she may even have a concussion, she would probably die without medical attention. Mandalore and herself were not in very great condition either. Unfortunately, all of the medical supplies they had were all either used up or destroyed before and during the battle. Meetra was exhausted from the battle but she would have to use the Force to heal everyone to the best of her abilities.
Kneeling down next to Visas, Meetra began to heal the worst and most life threatening of her wounds first. "Mandalore, I never took you for a coward. Are you a brave Mandalorian who fought for honor and glory during the Mandalorian wars or not?" She asked him. The mandalorian stiffened in offense at her words. "Don't let him scare you like this. Yes he is quite powerful, but you saw as well as I did that we almost won. We simply underestimated him this time but it won't happen a second time. You know we are going to have to fight him again, and when we do I am going to need you to try to be brave. If we don't kill him, the Republic, the Mandalorians, the whole galaxy is in danger and you know it. If it helps you, just try to focus on the glory of killing such a dangerous opponent."
Mandalore lowered his head and clenched the fist of his unbroken arm for a moment before he sighed and let his shoulders droop slightly. Finally he chuckled to himself and said, "It's funny really. During the war I saw and experienced all sorts of horrors, including the destruction of Malachor V, but I let this one battle get to me... Thank you, Jedi, I suppose I needed that." He paused and looked off to the side. "I'm probably going to have nightmares about this for a while, but I swear on my honor as leader of the Mandalorians that you can count on me to have your back when we have to fight him again. What kind of warrior would I be if I wasn't prepared to die in battle?"
Meetra smiled at him as she worked. "Good, I'll hold you to that." After a few minutes she finished healing Visas just enough to ensure she would survive until they could find or make some shelter. Grabbing Visas by one of her shoulders she looked up at Mandalore and asked, "I know you only have one arm right now, but do you think you can help me prop her up? It would be bad to just leave her laying on the ground like this and I would like to tend to a few of our wounds as well." Mandalore simply nodded and took Visas' other shoulder with his good arm and helped drag her unconscious form over to a nearby tree.
Meetra then turned to heal Mandalore, though he raised a hand to reject her offer. "I'll be fine, I've dealt with worse. After what you did in that battle you have to be exhausted, and you look like you're about to drop at any second. Save your energy for now."
Meetra glared at him. "At least let me heal your arm! We don't know what sort of creatures might inhabit this forest, and if we get attacked you're going to have to be able to use both of them since you'll be using this for the moment." She held out Visas' lightsaber to him. "I saw you lose your blaster earlier. Just be sure to give it back once she wakes up."
Mandalore hesitated and reached behind his back, pulling out a Mandalorian Blaster pistol. "I may have lost my rifle, but I always carry back up just in case. It's a little banged up but it should still work just fine. Keep the lightsaber, you can put it to far better use than I can."
Meetra groaned in annoyance. "Are all Mandalorians this stubborn?"
"Only the best of us." Mandalore chuckled.
"Fine, I guess I'll just heal myself then." Meetra relented. She spent a few minutes healing herself, only bothering with injuries like her sprained ankle and broken ribs which would actually get in her way or affect her performance. She felt like she was about to pass out from exhaustion by the time she finished healing herself, but she powered through and forced herself to remain awake.
Knowing it was a long shot, she took out her comlink and attempted to contact the Ebon Hawk and the rest of her crew, all she got in response was static. She then tried scanning through every Republic, Civilian, and even the few Mandalorian channels she knew, but her results were all the same as before.
"Well it looks like we're stranded here." Meetra said, trying her best to control her frustration. "This isn't Telos IV, our comlinks don't have enough range to call for help, there is obviously life on this planet but it all lacks any connection to the Force so I can't sense even a single plant. That means we're likely on an uncharted planet somewhere in the outer rim since I have never heard of a planet where there is no life with any connection to the Force whatsoever. We have no food, water, medical supplies, or shelter, and I can't see any signs of civilization anywhere... Oh and the sun is about to set." She listed off their problems in exasperation. "On the bright side, we're still alive and I don't see Darth Nihilus anywhere! Let's just hope he got sent into a black hole or the center of a star somewhere." She said with false cheer.
"It would certainly make our lives a lot easier if he did." Mandalore agreed, a serious tone in his voice. "Actually, you're wrong about there being no signs of civilization." He claimed in an attempt to change the subject. Pointing off to the right with his good arm he said, "You must have missed it, but while we were falling I actually did see a small settlement a little over a mile in that direction. The buildings seemed extremely primitive, but it looked like it was inhabited."
"Hm..." Meetra hummed in thought. "I don't like it... We know nothing about this planet or it's inhabitants. That settlement could be anything from a pirate or slaver base to a whole new undiscovered species. They might try to kill us if we head there, and we're not exactly in the best condition to fight."
"Look, I don't like it either, but what choice do we have?" Mandalore growled in frustration. "We are still in need of proper medical attention, rest, and some way off of this planet. As far as I can see, that settlement is our best shot at all of these, and unless you recover enough of your energy fast enough to heal her a lot more, Visas will die without proper treatment." He declared, a cold edge in his voice. "If we go now, assuming this planet has a fairly standard rotation, we should be able to make it there before dark if we hurry. We just have to hope the locals speak Galactic Basic and won't try to kill us on sight."
"I wasn't saying we shouldn't go." Meetra commented, grabbing Visas by the wrists and pulling her unconscious form to a standing position before rotating so the unconscious Miraluka's chest was on her back and her arms were hanging over her shoulders. Meetra then leaned forward and grabbed just underneath Visas' knees and lifted her up, carrying her like a backpack. "I agree with you, I just meant that we have to be careful about this."
With that, they began their trek through the forest towards the settlement. It was surprisingly uneventful for a while, though this wasn't to last. After about half an hour they were surrounded by a pack of what looked like some sort of wolves, but oddly they were made entirely out of wood. The wooden wolves howled all around them. Meanwhile, Mandalore drew his blaster pistol with his good arm, aiming it at the biggest of the strange wooden wolves. Meetra dropped one of Visas' legs and grabbed her lightsaber. Bright blue plasma extended from the hilt as she activated the blade and held it in a defensive single handed posture, being mindful of Visas who she was still carrying unconscious on her back.
Mandalore fired his blaster the moment the wolves stopped howling, the sound of the shot echoing loudly through the trees. The blaster bolt crashed into the largest wooden wolf, burning a hole straight through its head. Surprisingly, despite this wound which would be fatal to any normal creature, the wooden wolf yelped in pain and surprise but remained standing. Mandalore fired a few more shots into it as it and the other wolves began to charge at them. After four or five more shots, the strange creature finally fell over dead. "Whatever these things are, they are tough bastards that's for sure!" Mandalore shouted over the wooden wolves growling and barking as he unloaded more blaster bolts into another one.
One of the wolves got close enough to lunge at him, and managed to bite the forearm he held out to aim his pistol with, fortunately its teeth failed to penetrate the Mandalorian Iron of his battle armor, seeming to crack on it instead. He kicked the wooden wolf hard and sent it flying into a nearby tree where it shattered to pieces. Surprisingly instead of staying dead like the first one, this wolf reassembled itself in a matter of seconds. This infuriated the Mandalorian who had assumed he had successfully killed it, causing him to unleash a flurry of blaster bolts into it which burned large smoldering chunks out of it's wooden body before it fell over lifelessly. During this time, yet another wolf had managed to bite into an unarmored section of his leg, causing him to grunt in pain before firing into it.
Meetra swung her lightsaber at one that jumped at her, intending to tear her throat out, cutting it into multiple pieces as she saw the difficulty Mandalore was having. Behind her another attempted to jump at Visas. Hearing this, Meetra twisted around rapidly to get Visas out of the way and stabbed the wooden wolf straight through the chest before easily dragging her lightsaber upwards along its body, cutting it partially in half and ensuring it wouldn't be able to get back up.
The battle went on like this for a few more minutes until the strange wooden wolves decided to cut their losses and run. Meetra breathed heavily trying to catch her breath as hot blood flowed from a few new wounds the wooden creatures managed to inflict upon her, though she had managed to protect Visas. A pile of wooden corpses scattered around her. Mandalore was in slightly worse condition but remained standing. "What... were those things?" He panted tiredly.
"I... don't know." Meetra replied uncertainly. Normally she would guess they were abominations created through Sith Alchemy but she couldn't sense any traces of the force in them whatsoever. It unsettled her. "We should keep moving. Whatever they are, there could be more."
They only managed to make it a short distance further before sighting a strange bird with a snake tail standing in their path. It hissed angrily and glared at them. It was likely a scavenger of some kind that was drawn by the battle, intending to clean up whatever scraps it could find. Not wanting to take any chances, Mandalore raised his pistol and shot the abomination. Unlike the wooden wolves, it immediately fell over dead as the blaster bolt crashed into it, burning a hole clean through its body. "What the hell is wrong with this damn planet?" Mandalore grumbled in irritation, kicking the creature's corpse to the side as they walked on past it.
As they trudged through the forest, Meetra couldn't help but admire the beauty of the plants and non-aggressive animals she saw. It astounded her that something so beautiful could truly exist without having any connection to the Force. Feeling the urge to investigate this further, she reached out with her senses, feeling for even the tiniest most insignificant flicker of the Force in the plants and animals of the forest as she walked. Even still, she could not detect the faintest hint of a connection to the Force in any of it.
Undeterred by her failure, she stilled her mind and focused, trying to look even closer. Finally, she felt something. It was barely even a ghost of a presence but it was there. At first she was excited, believing she had finally managed to find some small connection to the Force among the life in this forest. Now knowing what to look for she felt countless more of these connections. However, her excitement slowly turned to confusion. There was something odd about them, though she couldn't quite understand what she sensed. They felt as though they were not connected to the Force but something else. It felt similar to the Force, yet significantly different at the same time.
She wanted to investigate this anomaly further. Before she could, however, she was pulled out of her pseudo-meditation as Mandalore grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her lightly. "Are you alright?" He inquired, releasing her as she looked at him, slight concern in his voice. "I just wanted to let you know that we should be there soon."
Meetra looked around and was surprised to realize that the sun was just about to set, though to her it had only felt like a few minutes had passed. "Oh, sorry. I'm fine, don't worry, I was just distracted with trying to see if I could sense a connection to the Force from life in this forest." She explained.
"Alright, well we should be at the settlement in a few minutes, so do that after we're sure we're safe. For now, try to keep your guard —" He was cut off as a giant lion-like creature with bat wings and the tail of a scorpion pounced on him from behind some bushes, knocking him to the ground and pinning him to the ground on his back. As the creature roared at him, he punched it in the esophagus as hard as he could with his good arm, collapsing it's throat and stunning it long enough for Meetra to set down Visas and draw her lightsaber.
She jumped towards the beast and carved an arch of blue light through the air as she swung the plasma blade. It connected and the icy blade formed by the pontite crystal in her lightsaber burned a deep wound into the beast's side, causing it to reel back and roar in pain. This allowed Mandalore to roll out from under it and tear his blaster pistol out of it's holster on his back.
Recovering, the abomination swung its tail at Meetra at blinding speeds, managing to stab her in the stomach and inject its venom before she could react. With the giant stinger still stuck in her stomach, the beast lifted her off the ground with its unreasonably strong tail and threw her into a nearby boulder. She cried out in pain as she felt her shoulder, some of her freshly healed ribs, and a few new ribs break. One of her ribs even pierced her lung causing blood to flood into it. She forced herself to her hands and knees, coughing violently.
The beast attempted to rush at her to finish her off, but Mandalore was having none of it. He fired his blaster pistol into it, leaving huge burns wounds on it that unfortunately did not go very deep. His blaster was designed to fight lightly armored soldiers or thugs, it could be used against smaller animals but it wasn't meant to be used to kill big game like this.
The beast focused on him again and came barreling towards him. He managed to fire a shot into one of its eyes, causing it to stumble and roar in pain, though it kept rushing towards him. Once it was close enough, it reared up on it's back legs and raised it's paws with it's sharp knife-like claws extended, and scratched at him furiously. The force of the attack batted his pistol out of his hand, his armor managing to block a few of the strikes though some managed to avoid the metal plates and tear into his body. Screaming in pain as it tore into his broken arm, finally unable to bear the assault any longer Mandalore fell to the ground.
Meetra reached out and grabbed her lightsaber, which was laying on the ground a few feet away, and forced herself off the ground even as she struggled to breath and coughed up blood. Seeing the beast readying itself to bite into Mandalore who laid unmoving on the ground, bleeding profusely, despite her exhaustion she jumped and used the Force to propel herself through the air towards it. Holding out her lightsaber in front of her, she impaled the monster through the side of the skull. Pulling the blade free and letting the monster fall to the ground dead, she shut off her weapon and reattached it to the side of her belt.
Pushing the monster's body out of the way, she immediately kneeled down next to Mandalore's body which was a bloody mess with his guts practically spilling out and chunks of flesh missing. "Mandalore, can you hear me? If you can hear me, say something!" She demanded. Not getting any sort of response, she cursed and checked his pulse and breathing through the Force, not having the time to remove his armor. She was relieved to find that he was still alive, but he was unconscious and was fading fast. He needed treatment, NOW or he would bleed out and die long before she could get him and Visas to that settlement. The only issue was that if she used the Force right now, she would collapse from exhaustion and both he and Visas would die before she could get them to the settlement. Cursing furiously, she knew she only had one choice if she wanted to save them both.
She used the Force Body technique to push herself past her limits knowing full well the damage it would do to her body. Ignoring the pain, she used Force Heal on Mandalore, healing his wounds just enough to push his guts back in and stop the bleeding. Finally satisfied with her work she looked up and saw his pistol laying on the ground a ways away. Standing up, she retrieved the weapon and shoved it back in the holster on his lower back.
Using the Force to enhance her strength, Meetra picked up Mandalore with one arm, throwing his body over her unbroken shoulder, before walking over to Visas and picking her up and carrying her the same way with her broken shoulder instead, gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain as best she could. Finally, she sprinted off in the direction of the settlement using the Force to enhance her speed.
With her enhanced speed it only took two or three minutes to exit the treeline of the forest. Pausing to look around, she almost immediately spotted what looked like a small cottage in the distance. Oddly, it seemed to have leaves of some sort growing out of the roof for some reason. Not wanting to startle it's inhabitants, she stopped using the Force to enhance her speed and approached at a normal pace. Her vision blurred as she got closer, the venom from that monster finally starting to take effect.
"No! Just a bit further, damn it!" She cursed furiously. Shaking her head as her mind began to fog from a mixture of the venom, the blood filling one of her lungs, the pain of her wounds, and her exhaustion starting to catch up to her as the effects of Force Body wore off. She stumbled and nearly collapsed but managed to force herself to push forward a few more steps before her legs finally gave out and she fell forward onto the ground.
She saw the door to the building open and was surprised to see a small yellow horse-like creature with an odd pink mane and tiny wings exit the building. The winged horse seemed to notice the three of them laying on the ground and gasped in horror. The last thing Meetra saw before finally falling unconscious was the seemingly sapient winged horse rushing towards them.
[Changeling Kingdom]
After being pulled through the tear in space, Darth Nihilus found himself falling through the sky above a barren rocky wasteland, vaguely reminiscent of a less destroyed Malachor V or perhaps certain areas of Korriban in appearance. Spreading his arms and legs to slow his fall as much as possible, he tilted his body to aim away from some sharp rocks he was falling straight towards and instead to a patch of sand off to the side, using the force to push himself to the side slightly to assist in guiding him to his target. Once he was sure of his trajectory, he braced himself for impact before crashing into the ground, creating a large cloud of dust.
Standing up from the small crater he created, for once he was glad his physical body had been consumed by his power long ago, and he was far lighter and more durable than he had used to be. Starving nearly to death and extremely weakened as a result, from his excessive use of the force when fighting the Jedi Exile, Nihilus was surprised and rather concerned to find that, despite him having seen various plants during his fall, dead as they may have been, this entire planet, no the whole galaxy was dead. He couldn't sense a speck of life for him to consume anywhere! Had they been sent to another galaxy entirely by that tear in space? How could an entire galaxy possibly be entirely devoid of life?! Had the residents of this galaxy all destroyed themselves through war, or had another being of his nature already consumed all life here?
No... That was wrong... He felt something else through the Force, something strange, something he had never felt before... It was... a power? A fundamental driving force of the universe, similar to the Force itself yet vastly different all the same. It was something he himself was not a part of or connected to like he was connected to the Force. Thus he could not feel it on his own let alone make use of it like he could the Force. Through the Force, however, he could vaguely make out what he was certain were the impressions of countless lives all over this planet, and possibly beyond, connected to this strange power. However, just as he wasn't connected to this mysterious power, these lives were also not connected to the Force.
He attempted to use the Force to sever the connection these impressions had to this mysterious power to feed on their deaths as he normally would, just with extra steps and requiring him to actively focus instead of being something he just did naturally, though nothing he tried seemed to work. It seemed that because they were not connected to the Force he could not sever their life force and thus could not feed on them. It was extremely frustrating. It was almost like a nightmare to him. He was starving to death and was stranded on some damnable planet teeming with food, yet he could not consume even the smallest bit of it!
In fact, while he could normally sense all life in the galaxy like little beacons signaling to him to come and consume them, he could only make out vague impressions of life on this planet and potentially the closest few star systems. He could only truly be certain of there being life on this one planet, however, so it was as though he had effectively been blinded as well! He did feel the presence of the Jedi Exile, his former apprentice, and the mandalorian that had been with them on this world, but he could not feed on any of them, though he desperately wished he could. Even consuming the mandalorian was impossible for him for some reason! He suspected the Exile was somehow responsible for this.
The pain of his hunger growing unbearable, he made his way to what seemed to be a single sharp rocky mountain in the distance, hoping he may be able to find a crashed ship or anything that may be able to help him get off of this planet from a higher vantage point. He hoped that if there was any intelligent life on this planet that they were at least space-faring. He had to get off this planet as quickly as possible! He had to escape this entire Force forsaken galaxy!
Finally nearing the mountain, dozens of strange massive black insectoid equine creatures with horns came spilling out of numerous caves in the mountain and flew towards him. This slightly confused him for a moment. This confusion turned to rage at the sight of dozens of lives with no connection to the force, meaning he could not feed on them, about to get in his way. It was utterly insulting. This only served to add insult to injury. Activating his lightsaber he began to vent his rage and frustrations on the strange insectoid equines.
First, sending his weapon spinning at them through the air with the force, cutting apart a handful of them before pulling his weapon back to his hand. They shot at him with strange green energy beams that seemed to come from their horns, which were glowing with the same green energy, all of which he either dodged, blocked, or redirected back at them with his lightsaber. He then blasted them with Force lightning assuming that while he couldn't use the force on them directly enough electricity would kill them as it would any other living being, and sure enough another dozen or so fell out of the sky to the ground, dead. Unfortunately, he had misjudged how starved and close to death he really was after his fight with the Exile and how much energy blasting them with lightning would take. Having used up too much of his energy, he collapsed to the ground not yet dead but now lacking the strength to move rendering him immobile.
Confused by his sudden collapse the remaining creatures and their reinforcements, which were still spilling out of the mountain, began to land and walk up to his immobile body, seemingly to make sure he was dead. One, avoiding Nihilus' still active lightsaber laying on the ground, pushed him over onto his back with it's hoof. Nihilus glared up at it, wishing beyond anything he could feed on it. Struggling to muster what little strength he had left, Nihilus spat the most vile insult he could think of at the creature, in his unintelligible language. The creature shuddered and with a disturbed expression on its face, it's horn started glowing green again as it seemed to ready itself to finish him off with a beam of energy.
However, a much larger insectoid equine creature emerged from the mountain and shouted something in a language Nihilus couldn't understand, causing all of the smaller creatures, including the one about to execute him, to stop whatever they were doing, face the larger creature, and bow. Nihilus was mildly surprised to learn that these things were apparently intelligent, but he was more concerned with the larger creature for the moment. It landed and slowly trotted over to him, allowing him to get a better look at it.
It had a green mane and tail, insectoid wings, a strange growth on it's head that looked vaguely like a crown which an ancient monarch might wear which along with it's greater size may suggest that it was the queen of this hive. It had slightly more delicate features than the other creatures suggesting it may be female, further supporting the concept that it may have been the queen of the hive. She had strange holes in her legs and horn like the other creatures, unlike the others she seemed to lack a hard black carapace and compound eyes but instead had short, soft, black fur over most of her body with a small green carapace covering only her back and midsection. Her eyes, which were like those of an average mammal, held cunning and ferocity that would be uncommon to see even amongst the ranks of the average Sith, rivaling that of even full Sith Lords.
She studied him curiously, circling his immobile form for a moment. Next she seemed to focus on his lightsaber. Her horn began to glow and a strange green aura surrounded his weapon before lifting it off the ground and bringing it closer to the creature for her to study. She gave it a few test swings, accidentally cutting a nearby rock in half. Seemingly satisfied with this, she examined the hilt of the blade again, this time raising a hoof and pressing the power button on the side, apparently curious about what it did, causing the lightsaber to shut off. She flinched, startled by this at first, but curiously pressed the button again, turning the weapon on and off again a few more times before finally leaving it off.
She then turned her attention back to Nihilus himself, who had stopped paying attention a few minutes earlier and could only focus on the nightmarish pain of his hunger. It was almost to the point that he wished the Jedi Exile, his former apprentice, and the Mandalorian had actually managed to kill him and spare him this torment. The pain of his hunger transcended anything he had ever been forced to endure before, even on Malachor V! Force save him, it was incomprehensible, maddening even! It was as though his very soul was being consumed by his hunger just as his body had been!
The large insectoid equine creature examined Darth Nihilus for a few minutes as if debating what to do with him and measuring his potential value. Finally she seemed to come to a decision. Her horn began to glow and a green aura surrounded Nihilus' body and seemed to seep into him.
Slowly, relief flooded through Nihilus as his hunger and the pain subsided until it was only about half as unbearable and he regained enough of his strength to move again after which the green aura disappeared. He forced himself up off the ground and turned to face the creature that had helped him, which seemed to have given his lightsaber to one of her soldiers.
In his strange, unintelligible, chant-like language, he inquired as to why the creature had helped him, attempting to send her thoughts, concepts, and images through the force to help translate as he did to anyone he spoke with purely out of habit. The fact she wasn't connected to the force, and thus the fact he couldn't effectively communicate with her, had slipped his mind entirely. His voice seemed to surprise the creature, causing her to flinch and back away slightly. After he had finished speaking, the creature looked frustrated and said something in her own language, which Nihilus couldn't understand. Her horn began to glow again and he was engulfed in a green flash of light.
"Can you understand me now? Say something!" She ordered impatiently, as if he should follow her orders immediately and without question. Darth Nihilus, now able to understand her, decided to ignore this insult for the moment given the fact that she had just saved him from starvation somehow.
"I am Darth Nihilus, Dark Lord of the Sith. Tell me, Equine Insect creature, how and why did you aid me? Furthermore, I am not connected to the strange power you use, just as you are not connected to the Force. How can your strange power affect me, while the Force can not affect you?" He inquired, his voice still sounding just as rithmic, nightmarish, and otherworldly as before. He was both curious and extremely frustrated by this development and wanted answers.
"I am Queen Chrysalis, sole ruler of the Changeling hive. I am going to assume this 'strange' power you are referring to is magic. While I did notice you have an unnaturally low amount of magic in your... uh... 'body' or whatever you call... that..." She stated with a disturbed look on her face, motioning towards him with her hoof. "You do still have some small traces of magic inside you. This allowed me to feed you and use a translation spell on you, though they both cost me more energy and love then they normally would. You owe me quite a bit for that by the way." She explained, deliberately looking him dead in the eyes as she declared that he owed her as if to drive that point home. Nihilus crossed his arms in annoyance and scoffed internally but let the pompous and condescending Changeling Queen speak for the moment, though his patience with her tone was wearing dangerously thin.
"That brings me to my next point, why I saved you from starving. Simply put, I would like to make you an offer that I believe we could both benefit from." She stated confidently.
"I have consumed countless lives across the stars; you are not but dust before me. I have held onto my patience only due to the fact you saved me from dying of starvation. Unless you have a ship capable of leaving this galaxy, what is stopping me from slaughtering you and your entire hive, foolish Insect?" Darth Nihilus growled harshly.
Chrysalis simply rolled her eyes in amusement. "Please... Even if any of that were true, that would have been a lot more threatening if you hadn't just collapsed from starvation moments ago." She scoffed. "I saw what you did to my soldiers and I'm not stupid. I only fed you enough so that we could talk. You feel like you're made of some form of energy, similar to magic, instead of flesh and blood. So if you try attacking us again or try to use your 'Force', you will use up too much of the energy your body is made of and will be immobilized again. After that I will simply throw you in the dungeon and let you starve to death, as I have done with plenty of other rebels." She explained nonchalantly.
Sitting down, Chrysalis continued. "As far as I can see, you have three options. First, you can listen to my offer and we come to an agreement that we can both benefit from. Second, you attack us, collapse, and starve to death in our dungeon and we keep your weapon. Third, you walk away and you likely starve to death trying to find a ship that can leave this 'galaxy', whatever that is, and we still keep your weapon as payment for your freedom, the soldiers you killed unprovoked, and for the love I fed you to keep you from starving to death. Personally I would prefer the first option. And keep in mind the fact that if this were any other kingdom you would have been either imprisoned or executed for murder by now, but I'll let you decide for yourself... Also, I suggest you stop calling me 'Insect' or otherwise insulting me or I may just be offended, and it is a crime to offend Changeling royalty in my kingdom." She added as an afterthought.
Darth Nihilus screamed in rage and frustration wanting to lash out and kill them all, but restrained himself. He did, however, stomp over to the soldier holding his lightsaber with their magic and snatched the hilt out of the glowing green aura and returned it to his belt. "Very well, Changeling Queen... I shall listen to your offer. What is it you desire from me?"
Queen Chrysalis smiled victoriously. "It is simple really. I believe that you are very similar to us, I could tell from the moment I felt your hunger." She explained standing up and walking closer to him. "You see, we feed on the love of others, this grants us the ability to sense the feelings and emotions of other beings. Your hunger is so intense the entire hive sensed it the moment you appeared in the sky. Otherwise, it feels so similar to our hunger for love it's almost uncanny. That being said there are some very distinct differences, you very clearly feed on something other than just emotions normally. Fortunately it seems that you can also consume love just fine since it was able to save you from starving to death, though it does take about six times as much love to feed you as it takes to feed one of us and your hunger is immense. Furthermore, while starving near to death, you killed over a dozen of my finest soldiers in a little under a minute, so you have also more than proven yourself a powerful warrior, and potentially a very valuable weapon against our enemies."
Darth Nihilus was rather intrigued by this concept. Assuming he ever found a way to return to his galaxy, perhaps he could feed on the emotions of his victims as they die to further feed his hunger. Perhaps he could even collect a few people as cattle to feed on their emotions just before he wiped out all life in the galaxy, to sustain himself long enough to move on to consume another galaxy. He would need a ship capable of traveling to another galaxy first, but if he could capture a few scientists and engineers as his slaves, he could force them to design and build him just such a ship. He would have to keep all of this in mind should he ever find a way back to his galaxy, or at least if he could find a way to feed on the creatures of this galaxy and find a half decent ship capable of FTL travel.
Queen Chrysalis continued, interrupting Nihilus' silent contemplation. "Simply put, I want to make you an honorary member of the Changeling hive! If you agree, we will feed you and ensure you don't starve to death, we will not do anything to harm you unless you break the law, we will even give you your own room in the hive. In return you will follow our laws and protect the hive, you will follow my orders without question and fight as a soldier for the Hive. You will also teach us as much as you can about this 'Force' thing you use and we will teach you as much as we can about Magic in return." She held a hoof out towards him. "I believe these terms should be more than fair, especially considering the circumstances, so do we have a deal?"
Darth Nihilus turned to face her, scowling internally. He didn't have much choice in the matter, he was going to die of starvation if he rejected the offer and he didn't have much room to ask for better terms at the moment. "I agree to these terms, only on the condition that I am allowed to search for a ship to return to my own galaxy or at the very least get off this world and out of this star system, and that you and your hive will not try to stop me should I succeed." He hissed reluctantly, reaching out with one hand and grabbing the hoof Chrysalis was holding out.
"As long as you don't leave the hive without permission, it's a deal." Chrysalis stated, shaking his hand. "Not that there would be much point to you leaving anyway since ships like you are looking for don't exist. I have never even heard of a galaxy, and the only ships I know of can't even leave the water without help let alone leave the world. We do have an excellent library in the hive. While it may not be as grand as the Canterlot library, it has many books from all over Equus on a vast number of scholarly topics, legends, and folklore, some of which we even managed to steal from the restricted section of the Canterlot library itself. So feel free to use it if you want. Maybe you'll find a book or two that can help you, there. For now though, welcome to the Hive. Do not disappoint me."