Title: The Wise
Author: 1Yodimus_Prime
Timeframe: An undisclosed point in time between Darth Bane's death and TPM. Somewhat closer to TPM, relatively speaking.
Characters: OCs: The Lord Darth Averus, a young boy of twelve, and someone else..
Genre: Dark Action. Call it a coming of age maybe. Or a celebration of death...*cough* I mean life. Sure. *shifty_eyes*
Keywords: Sith, pre-TPM, OC, angst (<-- if you call horrible death and destruction 'angst'...)
Summary: A young Sith Hopeful is brought to an out-of-the-way planet to continue his instruction with his soon-to-be Master. Things work their way downhill from there.

!!!!!!!!UPDATE 2/6/2017!!!!!!!!
(the hell happened to formatting buttons on this forum?)
So a mod let me know this has been truncated beyond all recognition, despite being linked from some currently operating awards thread. Right now, I can fix about 2/3rds of this story no problem, thanks to the beta reader introducing me to google docs back in the day. Unfortunately after about chapter 10 or so, I'll need the original document. Which is on a Mac mini from before the existence of hdmi, which means in order to hook it up to any monitor, I'll need the vga-to-dv dongle I owned way back in college. Which I may never find. So this story is kind of in limbo right now. If you're coming here from that thread, that's the current status of things. I'll update this space if I ever crack into that old computer and get this all fixed. See ya then. Yod out

Notes: Don't be fooled by the first chapter, this tale gets really dark, really fast. But what did you expect? It's about the freakin' Sith.
I need to thank Alion_Sangre for reading through the enitre ~100 page story in, like, twenty seconds, and using his encyclopedic knowledge of the GFFA to pick out all the in-universe continuity errors. That was cool of him. And I also need to give props to Oqidaun, who is going to be my beta reader for this story (hopefully for the entire duration, yes?). And I also need to give another prop to Jennifer_Lyn, for writing the vig [link=http://boards.theforce.net/b/b1/20641283]From Humble Beginnings[/link], which served to motivate me to get this on the page, and also serves loosely as the backstory for one of the characters.

I intend to add a new chapter once a week, usually on Tuesday (or Monday). I'll leave it at that for now. But since the story is already technically completed, I could easily bump that up to two posts a week. We'll see what happens.

That said, if Oqi returns a beta'd chapter and it's filled with enough red to challenge "Dead Alive" (and it's bound to happen one of these days), I'd rather spend two weeks making it work than deliver something mediocre but on schedule. Just a heads up.

And as always: ALL READERS WHO WISH TO BE ADDED TO THE PM LIST, PLEASE SAY SO IN YOUR RESPONSE POST. I can't read minds, people. (Okay, I can, but that's neither here nor there. My official policy is the facade stays up until feds catch on)

okay, enough jibba-jabba from me.
On with the story.



[blockquote]?The most dangerous men are always orphans."
? Darth Sidious[/blockquote]

[hr]

[hr][b]Chapter 1: Questions?[/b][hr]


The night was cold and rotten.

It engorged itself on the small cabin?s heat, slow and steady - perpetually devouring, never satiated, never ending. The wind carried all the warmth away with it to the Western Canyon, to drop into oblivion over the nameless waterfalls that danced about the Cliffside. Darth Averus lay gently, gracefully upon the cot. It whined softly, but accepted the new weight easily. Averus was not in any way frail, but there was certainly less there than had been in younger days. Yet even at this age, the chill air had no ill effect upon the Sith?s health. In fact, it was a welcome comfort. Averus enjoyed the alertness it brought to the body and mind.

Nobody could possibly disagree more than the young boy across the room, shivering at the entrance. All but his eyes and hands were wrapped in a thick dark cloth of a rough weave, but the wind had exploited even this minimal exposure, drying his skin red and raw. He put his back into squeezing the door snug against the uneven wall, desperate for the relief of the calm and quaint interior.

In a click, the wind vanished into a suggestion ? a subversively silent motion that commanded all the creaks and knocks the meager cabin pleaded with. He bowed his head in deference and stepped forward, presenting himself. Darth Averus did not rise or acknowledge the boy?she merely said, in a clipped whisper, ?Sit.?

He did so.

They remained still ? she on the cot, he on the floor ? for a long time. They listened to the moaning walls and felt the dying warmth in silence. The shutters on the sills were the only thing that moved. It was an unsp>

 

What a perfectly excellent chapter! I can't wait to read more.

 

Actually, I shouldn't be shocked, but it was brilliant nontheless.

I loved the opening when you set the stage with Lady Averus (very cool name btw), with the coldness...

"Colors of the Voice"...amazing description Yod...

Just Holy across the board!

And the beast in the boy's head: gray and black and purple and blue...

And he knew that "she loved him"...ooo, gave me tingles!



Keep me on that PM list Mister Yodimus!

 

Excellent start! Could I be on your PM list??

 

their presence will never vanish, because finding two people in a galaxy full of people is impossible

I love that line.

This is a great story!! I'd like to be on your PM list

 

Ooooh, very interesting start. I like those two.

You can count me in on the pm list. I suck a commenting, but I'd hate to forget about this.

 

I'm really glad to see this story posted. It looked great in BetaLand and even better over here on the boards. It's a bit of a change from the usual Yodalicious Laugh Fest of Planet Hopping, but I really like it and look forward to seeing more. In fact I know where I can find more.

 

Healer:"Whoa. That is quite the start. Toally sucked me right in. "
That's cuz I hid a black hole in the first chapter. I recommend not getting too close..

Niobe: "What a perfectly excellent chapter! I can't wait to read more."
Thanks! Though, could we maybe go with 'imperfectly excellent'? Nothing against this chapter, but I'd like to think they get better as time goes on and...well, I don't want the bar set toooo high so soon. I'm afraid of heights, you see.

Mr. Ale: " I loved the opening when you set the stage with Lady Averus (very cool name btw), with the coldness..." Why thanks! You can thank Oqi's Beta Powers for making me expand on the 'colors of the voice' thing. Otherwise, you'd be scratching your head instead of applauding.
I'm sorry to hear I've given you the tingles. I thought it wasn't contagious...

VaderLvr: "Excellent start!"
Thank you! That means a lot coming from you. I fully intend to live up to that excellent startness. Time will tell.

NYCg: It's a good line because it's true. The Sith really are like finding a needle in a haystack...except the haystack is the size of Jupiter, and the needle is actively trying to avoid you.

MsLanna: "Ooooh, very interesting start. I like those two."
Yeah, ya almost wanna hug 'em. (except then you'd die)

Oqi: "I'm really glad to see this story posted...It's a bit of a change from the usual Yodalicious Laugh Fest of Planet Hopping, but I really like it and look forward to seeing more."
Oh come now, this story is full of laughs

If you're a psychopath.
And hey, who isn't these days. Expect another Tuesday update. See ya there!

PS: Consider yourselves on the list. Watch yer backs.

 

[b]Chapter 2: Give and Take[/b]


It was the touch of an icy morning sunlight that woke him. He shivered. The dead-still air hung cold as frost about him, but this was not what made him shake. He?d dreamt of it again. The Shadow Beast. And this time, it did not hide in the Darknesses of his mind. This time it attacked. Faceless and terrifying, it leapt fiercely from the dark and crushed him beneath its weight. He remembered vividly how it sliced open his stomach with its inky black claws. Then it bent down, not to pick at him the way he?d seen predators pick at newly killed carcasses, but to deliver a bite so large and so strong that it severed his spine, ripping him in two. It continued its savage assault going for his face. And when all he could see was the Shadow Beast?s gaping, slavering maw, he awoke.

His Master was already up. She seemed cheerful and bid him to get dressed for a trek outside.

?I had a dream last night,? he said forcing evenness into his voice.

?I know. We?ll talk about it on the way. Today begins your real training with the sword. After this week, I suspect you may even be ready to wield your very own lightsaber.?

All thoughts of Shadow Beasts left his mind. All at once, his heart both leapt for joy and shied away. He wasn?t stupid. He knew what she really meant: that he?ll become her Apprentice. Not that this mattered since he [i]was[/i] her apprentice, in all but name. More frightening and wonderful to him, it meant he could finally take his name; it meant he would become a Sith Lord, ?Lady Averus, do you really think I'm ready?"

?We?ll see, boy.?

They spoke of much as they hiked through the forest. His Master made sure there was something to split his concentration at all times: balancing equipment, a sudden ?think fast?, a last-second order to levitate brush out of her path ? and when they arrived at the clearing she was searching for ? katas with a training staff.

The staff itself was made of a light wood, balanced so that nearly all of the weight was near the end he held. He guessed it was meant to simulate a lightsaber. It was almost as long as he was tall, and performing Averus's katas with it felt awkward. Yet she added strings of them in swiftly progressing complexity. Not a second of understanding went by without a new challenge being thrown into the training to up the difficulty. Averus was acutely sensitive to the boy?s ability to learn fast, something everyone else he ever met seemed to miss. It was the one thing, above all else, that made the boy so attached to Darth Averus: she saw his potential.

And boy did she. No matter how foolish they sounded, she answered every single question he put to her that day, always giving him abundant information and then some. Nobody, in all his life, had ever been this open with him. Especially not those selfish, ignorant monks who?d raised him.

He never knew his parents, and he never [i]wanted[/i] to know his parents. If the Force could only damn one kind of person to Hell, then he hoped it would be the kind that left their children on doorsteps.


In his case, that doorstep led to a temple of the Shimuran Order. The Order was composed of a collection of monks who practiced what they called ?The Way Of The Ka?. Their devotion to this particularly strict interpretation of the Force had caused them to split from the Jedi many centuries before. So they had about four long centuries to create and refine a solid philosophy, happily free of Jedi interference.

He had it torn to ribbons in under seven years.

They knew from the moment he said his first words that the boy was bright. But they were never able to appreciate just [i]how[/i] bright. When, at four, he began picking up and reading texts about The Way Of The Ka, left carelessly on the floor, they called it ?playing?. Playing! It took him two years to read everything in their library. They never noticed.

He became a problem child exactly one day later.

It had been an innocent enough question, posed to the abbot after meditation one day: ?Why>

 

What an update! I'm floored. Love all of it.
And since I'm thumb-tied, I'll just sit around here and gawk.



The boy didn?t even flinch, ?Ha. Looks like I got you then,? he smiled wickedly behind his pale cheeks and exhausted eyes, ?at this rate, I?ll be dead by ten.? Which landed him back in the hospital.

 

He smiled warmly and laid a hand on the child, ?The Will of the Force is mysterious to us, young one.?

?But what would its Will be, that it requires the suffering of others??

?I dare say, child, that the Force never requires anything. It is our?s alone to either choose to do its Will, or not.?

?Is it also the weather?s choice to cause hurricanes, then? And the mantle?s choice to erupt volcanoes??

?Of course not,? he said without hesitation, though his response had been a bit startled. It was doubtful that before this conversation, the abbot had even realized the boy knew the word mantle, let alone its geological meaning, ?Those things have no free will to make choices with. They are just a few of the side effects of our beautiful universe, and they must be respected and understood.?

?But?what if you?re a tribal village that doesn?t know anything about hurricanes and volcanoes? How can the Force expect us to respect and understand what we don?t even know exists? If those things have no free will, shouldn?t the Force step in and be their Will, and do the right thing by avoiding crowded beaches and populated islands??

I particularly loved THIS exchange!

 

Great update Yodimus!

I love how you started the boys life as being insignificant, but built it - almost to Godfather status, until one day Darth Averus comes along and outs him back into a position of him having to grow back into a position of power.

The best part is, the boy seems to welcome it!

?But?what if you?re a tribal village that doesn?t know anything about hurricanes and volcanoes? How can the Force expect us to respect and understand what we don?t even know exists? If those things have no free will, shouldn?t the Force step in and be their Will, and do the right thing by avoiding crowded beaches and populated islands??

?It went downhill from there.

I love how you captured the mind of a child.

 

Lanna: I'm happy to see that both laughing and crying at the same time didn't cause you to explode. I would hate to lose a reader that way.

Well...unless I was there to witness it.

Leona: "Ahhh, the monks could have helped the boy so much more in encouraging and directing his energies instead remaining steadfast in their own narrow beliefs." Having someone around who's younger and smarter than you can be threatening. The monks' response was natural. They should have known better, but eh, whatadya gonna do? Heathens.
(oh, and let's not think too much about future name choices... )

Vaderlvr: Yep, they were stumped by the skeptic's ol' "if god's so perfect, why do bad things happen?" trap. That's why they're a peripheral cult and the Jedi practially run the Republic. It's all in how well you answer that question. How the boy figured out to ask, I'll never know. He's a devious little kid.

Ale: It's funny what intelligent beings are willing to give up for affection, isn't it? (and by 'funny' I really mean 'depressing and kind of tragic') Granted, I really doubt his little insurection would have been a good thing..
"I love how you captured the mind of a child." Hey, hey, let's not go spreading that around town, okay? I appreciate the kudos, but the last thing I want is the cops barging in during an important experiment. I've broken enough brain jars this month as it is.


Expect a new Chapter next week.
Bout time this story got movin'!

 

Beautifully written.
Where's my PM!?!!? You know I'm not smart enough to keep up with stories in the absence of PMs.

There'll be a beta for you tomorrow at secret Gmail hideaway.

 

Ah, durn it. I knew there was someone I was forgetting from that PM list.
Well color my face red. Damn. That's like forgetting who Disney is.

(I was originally gonna use the analogy "that's like the President forgetting he has a vice president" ..but then I got this image in my head of Bush's desk in the Oval Office filled with post-it note reminders, and I realized that the comparison didn't work so well.)


That aside, your ability to hunt this down regardless of my forgetfullness is just another testament to your inhuman diligence, Oqi.

 

Great update, Yodimus! Ten...wow, the kid's got spirit. Doesn't take crap from anyone, does he? He'll make a wonderful little Sith. It's good to see his backstory (I'm such a sucker for them!).

Anxiously awaiting more,
Niobe

 

Niobe: "Ten...wow, the kid's got spirit. Doesn't take crap from anyone, does he? He'll make a wonderful little Sith." Hm. We'll see. Anxiously awaiting more
Well you can settle that anxiety now, cuz here comes the next update:

---

By the end of the second day on that snowy world, Averus was sparring with him ? showing him how to block and counter. As with everything, she was patient when he had trouble and quick to change when he caught on. She even took care to wrap their sparring sticks in cloth, so that when Lady Averus ? a strong, spry woman for her age ? inevitably got too into it, he would only leave with minor bruises. Surprisingly, he found himself with relatively few in comparison to the number of sparring matches they had.

The two walked back to the small cabin together that evening, and after regaining his strength from the workout, he ventured some more questions. There was one in particular that he was keenly interested in, though he dared not jump directly into it.

?So?? he took a bigger breath, ?the Jedi. Do they do this stuff too, or is sword fighting just something a Sith bothers to learn?? it wasn?t all that important a question, but he needed a lead-in, and out of everything he could think of at the moment, this question sounded the [i]least[/i] like a lead-in.

?Oh, the Jedi learn this. In fact, they devote most of their lives to mastering one martial art or another. Even some very aggressive ones. Never underestimate the Jedi, boy.? She eyed him, ?Carry my pack,? she tossed it to him seconds before giving the order. The boy did not lose his balance so she continued, ?There is a datapad in there somewhere. Find it without looking or putting your hands inside.? She flipped back to the subject at hand, ?You see, sparring with sabers ? no matter the kind ? is not actually an art the Sith created, or will truly ever own, to be honest. It has always been a Jedi thing. Their way of feeling superior to the masses, I suppose, given that they restrict themselves from showing off their own obvious arrogance in every other way. We simply use it as another tool in our arsenal. This one specific to dealing with other Jedi, of course.?

He thought about the implications of this, ?So these lessons are really unimportant then, outside of keeping me on par with what the Jedi can do.?

?Careful boy, these particular lessons may not be some exemplification of the Sith Way, but they are still drastically important.?

?But?the purpose of this trip couldn?t be explicitly for training me in the sword, could it? You would want me to learn something deeper than that, wouldn?t you??

She regarded him silently for a moment. A while passed before she said anything, ?Have you found it??

?Right here. I think the batteries are dead, though.? He handed the datapad to her, ?You told me the other day that you knew about my Shadow Beast.?

?I did,? she waved off the device, ?You can keep it. Make sure to recharge it when we get back and it?s yours.?

He ignored the stuff about the datapad, ??What do you know??

?As much as you, dear. That [i]is[/i] where it hunts you, is it not? Inside yourself??

?Uh, yes.?

?Then how could I possibly know any information outside of what sits within that clever little brain of yours? The answers are there, waiting. You need to take those answers yourself; you can?t rely on me for that. Because, if you let me find your answers?if you let [i]me[/i] do it?? she tore her pack out of his hands, ?I?ll keep them all.?

They hiked the rest of the way in silence. That was the last question he asked her for the rest of the night.

At the beginning of the third day, she forewent katas altogether and spent the entire afternoon showing him the nuance of battle between two swords. She showed him what to do if his opponent was faster, if his opponent was stronger, if his opponent was more experienced, if his opponent was all three. It was frustrating for him, because she would put him into sit>

 

I like it.

 

Not nice to keep us hanging here. I wonder what that shadow beast of his really is. And if the thing hunting him is really it, or just contracted by Averus.

You need to take those answers yourself; you can?t rely on me for that. Because, if you let me find your answers?if you let me do it?? she tore her pack out of his hands, ?I?ll keep them all.?
Wow. Now taht is enlightenment the hard way.
I'm more glad with each update I did not chose to become a Sith. I think I wouldn't become them well, anyway.

Btw, my brother just gave me a digi-cam for birthday. So if my head explodes, I'll make sure somebody films it and sends the pics to you.

 

Great update! Loved this part:

Real enough to what? To be real? To hurt me? To hurt her? Was it here? Was she distracted because she felt its presence somewhere? Was she leaving me every evening because she was tracking it...or trying to hide from it...or laying traps for it or following it to a den or trying to lead it astray? But what if it's too strong? Would it kill her? Would it then go after me?

Or am I letting my fear rule me, instead of ruling my fear. The Shadow is my own, not her?s, just like she said. Why should she care where it is and what it?s doing. That should be my job.

Superb!

 

Real enough to what? To be real? To hurt me? To hurt her? Was it here? Was she distracted because she felt its presence somewhere? Was she leaving me every evening because she was tracking it...or trying to hide from it...or laying traps for it or following it to a den or trying to lead it astray? But what if it's too strong? Would it kill her? Would it then go after me?

This line of though on the Shadow Beast made me think of the Sith's rite of passage where they finally give into the darkside completly in that they realize they not only want the knowledge of their predecessor, but they hunger to control it.


In front of him stood the largest, thickest, most tangled and gnarled tree he?d ever seen. It was so out of place in this forest full of thin needley evergreens, he had to look twice to even remind himself it was a tree. It was strangely beautiful, sitting there, alone yet protected within its crowded world. An outsider, taken in by strangers who weren?t so strange after all. The tree was like him. This was why he took that walk; this was the reason.

I'm kind of reminded of the tree on Dagobah by that description, although it also reminded me of the boy himself.


His vision cleared. He saw that the Shadow Beast was armed. He saw the long stick in its claws ? a spear, sharpened into a cruel looking point ? aimed at his chest. And he ran. And the Shadow followed, as shadows always do.

Aw darn, that's the second cliffie today...

You must be Sith yourself Yod, I keep re-thinking and analyzing everything you post!

 

Tizz - Thanks! I relayed your message, and the Story instructed me to inform you that it likes you too

Lanna - Not nice to keep us hanging here.
Well, I'm not a nice person
I'm more glad with each update I did not choose to become a Sith.
Phew! And here I was worried this would look like pro-Sith propaganda. (eh, there's still a long way to go...)

Mama V - Oh, this story's all about constantly rethinking everything. I'm glad you enjoyed that passage, cuz you're gonna see a lot of similar moments in coming updates

Leona - I have to agree about wondering on the Shadow Beast, it's almost too convenient.
Trust me, NOTHING about being chased by a "Shadow Beast" is convenient. Also, "coincidence" cannot be found in my vocabulary. Keep that in mind


CA - You must be Sith yourself Yod
Have I ever claimed I wasn't? Glad you noticed the tree, though. It's gonna play a pretty important role later on.


Next Chapter soon! (possibly tomorrow) And you WILL get answers!
But, like all good answers, I suspect they will raise far, far more questions than they vanquish.