The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Thirty: Darth Bane's Insight

DARTH BANE

Darth Bane's eyes flicked open, and his calm yellow-and-red gaze swept across the dull grey walls of the Scimitar. He breathed in deeply. He could almost feel the raw power of the Dark Side of the Force orbiting around him.

He stood, clenching and unclenching one massive hand. The transformation of the bounty hunter's body into his was complete. He was ready to rise again.

And, as he began his ascent, from the ashes of the Empire a new Order would rise with him – his Order.

But there remain the Two of your Rule, my old Master. Sidious and Vader and their Inquisitors will not fall easily, nor will the dictatorship they have set in place.

Bane's eyes flicked up, and he calmly took in the sight of Darth Zannah. Her golden-red hair danced around her in a wind he couldn't feel on his skin, but stroked the burning coals in his soul in a way that no Sith could ignore.

The breeze spoke of the long-forgotten vaults deep in the burning rock of the planet Moraband, the place that Zannah and the souls of every Sith now dead were still tethered to.

How are you here? He asked simply.

She smiled thinly, her yellow-rimmed-with-red eyes narrowing. I have my ways, she answered.

Are you aware that I will not hesitate to destroy you if you get in my way?

Of course I am, she replied coolly. After all, I studied under you for years. I know every single one of your secrets in the Arts of the Dark Side. If I was able to kill you the last time we fought, then I can do it again.

He barked out a laugh. Is that a challenge?

Your insight serves you well. She crossed her arms over her chest, and, for the first time, Bane noticed the embers and sparks – the vestiges of the Netherworld of the Force – that were clinging to her.

How are you even able to assume an image in this world? He asked as she began to circle him. That is impossible unless you have...

And then he realized. Unless there was an empty body present in the ancient Sith birthplace – which there had been in his case – the presence of a Darksider trapper inside could only bond and share the power of someone of a similar species and the same gender. But almost the entire of Zannah's species had become extinct long ago, back during the last outbreak of the Blue Shadow Virus...

Very good, she hissed, stalking to the other side of the small room. Yes, I have found one of my distant kin, a member of a species so like Humans, and yet too different for one of them to make a suitable host... The last pure Force-sensitive Cialan.

A calculating smile came to the Sith Lord's lips. Then this little game you're playing just became even more interesting...

Then, without warning, he grabbed onto her Force-signature and pushed it deep into the Netherworld of the Force. But she held on, staring into his eyes even as her corporeal image was crumbling to ash.

With every bit of power you expend on my behalf, I become stronger. There's a storm coming, Bane. And it will be the end of you for–

And then she was gone.

He exhaled, his eyes narrowing. Although he had expected Zannah's interference in his plans, it appeared she was far better equipped than he had originally thought. If she had a host in mind, then it was only a matter of time before she took the opportunity and came after him.