The Sacrifice: Part II

[Svo'k Lynd]

"Conflict sharpens one's skills and makes the Sith stronger."

―Darth Bane

Six years later.

A gloved hand smacked him across the face and he instantly tasted blood as it filled his mouth and he struggled to remain kneeling.

::DON'T YOU LOOK AT ME WITH THOSE INNOCENT BLUE EYES, YOU ARE A SITH! YOU WILL ONLY LOOK ME IN THE EYES ONCE THEY HAVE BECOME SITH EYES LIKE ANAKIN'S!!::

The same that had struck him grabbed him at the base of the chin and made him turn to face his peer.

::LOOK! His eyes are YELLOW! Those are SITH EYES SVO'K! Until you earn them you do not have the right to speak to me unless spoken to or look at me unless I tell you too. Do you understand me?!::

Realm released his hand from Svo'k's chin and Svo'k immediately lowered his head in submission to his master. The twelve year old's blood boiled and he felt himself wanting to grab his lightsaber and cut his master down right there, but he'd never win and he knew it. He had become strong and powerful for his age, but he was nowhere near ready to take on a fully trained Sith Lord, especially one like his master.

"Yes Master!"

Svo'k said, resolve behind his words, he had to get stronger, he had to earn the eyes of a Sith, how Anakin had done it and he hadn't had baffled him. He had been training every bit as hard, if not harder. He glanced over at his friend and roommate for the past six years. They had trained together, eaten together, been on missions together and more recently had even killed together. The two of them were a formidable pair and were not to be taken lightly by any reasonable opponent they faced. They had been trained well and trained hard for the last half of their lives, they had both felt that they were becoming good Sith. Lord Realm often ranted about his disdain for the academies and the lack of quality Sith that they produced, while he was hard on both of them, it was clear that he was proud of what they were both becoming. On their worst day he'd have placed them against any student three years their senior from any of the academies and would expect them to win.

As Svo'k knelt there for what seemed like an eternity, he felt jealousy brewing deep within him, it was small at first but for the first time he was jealous of his friend. Realm moved to the center of the room and Svo'k's eyes soon found the ground before Realm's feet.

::Gentlemen. I have a mission for both of you but I must warn you, this storm will make it exceedingly dangerous. You must use all your skills and training to complete this mission.::

Realm paused ensuring that he had their full attention.

::Twelve kilometers away past the valley of the Dark Lords there is a rare Sith artifact that you will retrieve for me. I will not tell you what it is or what it looks like, but I will say that if you are vigilant you will know what it is when you find it. You will bring it back to me by no later than sunset tomorrow. You may take with you only what you are wearing and one full canteen. Anakin, you are in charge. Questions?

"No Master."

"No Master."

Both boys said in unison. With that Darth Realm raised his hood and opened the door, the sand flying through the air in a blinding cloud of speed.

::Good. I will be in my chambers meditating. Now go.::

Realm retreated into his chambers without another word. Both young Sith stood up and looked at each other, they raised their hoods and retrieved sand goggles from the belts and stepped out into the storm of the century. Anakin took point and was flanked closely by Svo'k whose jealous was growing a bit more by the minute especially after Anakin had been put in charge. For the first several kilometers he was nearly silent only responding when spoken to. Finally he felt his friend lean his shoulder into him in a semi playful manner.

"Dude what?!"

Anakin through his hands up in feigned surrender and shook his head as the young men made their way through the storm. He wasn't sure what was eating Svo'k, but his demeanor and attitude was getting a bit annoying. Sure Realm had chastised him, that was always rough but they were strong young Sith and they could definitely take it.

"Kriff's sake Svo'k chill. You got sand in your crack or what?"

Svo'k grunted, then immediately stopped and looked at Anakin throwing his hands up in the air.

"Yes I kriffing do! Why the hell does he have to do that shit?! I mean seriously, you got yellow eyes good job, it's not like I'm out here kriffing screwing around not working my absolute ass off! Then he puts you in charge when we've been equals this entire kriffing time. What the hell is he trying to do?! Then he outright slaps the hell out of me for looking at him. I swear Man sometimes I think he's just trying to kriff with our heads."

Anakin stopped cold and turned to face his friend, he'd seen him upset before but this was something new, sure they were both accustomed to anger and hatred, but normally it was channeled and not so unbridled like this. Anakin shrugged at Svo'k, he thought about reaching out to pat him on the shoulder, but he knew Svo'k and he knew what his channeled anger could do, he wasn't sure he wanted to find out what his unchanneled anger could do.

"Take a breath. Am I rubbing the fact that I'm in charge in your damn face?! No I'm not. I got yellow eyes, he's using it to motivate you. You're no less of a Sith than I am and he knows that man. Yeah he's screwing with our heads that's his job as our Master Svo'k. We are to bring back the artifact not just one of us, both of us. He's just trying to get under your skin, the eyes happen with some Sith differently than with others. Yours will come, you're no less stronger than me and you're better with a lightsaber than I am. So take that for what it's worth dude. He sent us out here pissed off in a difficult situation to get some random artifact. Probably Bane's pillow case or some nonsense..."

"With one kriffing canteen."

Svo'k said firmly

"Exactly! He wants us pissed off at each other so it's that much harder to work together, so the fact that you're sitting there jealous of me and my eyes means you're falling into his trap. You're smarter than that, we're smarter than that. So screw it all and we're going to do this just to spite him, it's us against him. You with me or are you going to sit there and whine like a little bitch?"

Anakin slapped Svo'k on the shoulder trying to get him to focus his anger at Realm. In truth he wasn't entirely sure about the validity of everything he said, but as the leader he needed to focus the person he was leading for the sake of mission.

Svo'k nodded as the sand pelted both of their face's

"Yeah. You're right, I'm sorry, it's just a lot of pressure lately. I don't know what the kriff is wrong with me acting like this towards you. Lets go, lets do this."

Svo'k nodded and the two young men continued on, he looked at his friend and studied his body language for a long moment as the two were walking and he was following. The thought didn't leave his mind for a second though, why wasn't he leading? Outwardly Svo'k had moved on, but on the inside he was still raging about the way his master had been treating him lately. For the first time other than fleeting thoughts, he felt like making his Master pay, he wanted to kill him...the thought was intoxicating, but he wouldn't be ready for a long time. He could plan though, he could plan for the future, for the time where he would be powerful enough to take his Master's place and then he would be subservient to no one but himself.

He grinned as he motioned to Anakin for the canteen, the other Sith tossed it back to him and Svo'k took a slow and short drink. They'd need to ration it carefully. He tossed it back to Anakin who attached it to his belt and the two continued towards their goal...

[Svo'k Lynd]

It was late at night now, the two young Sith had stopped having gone almost the entire distance in one day. Anakin clutched his stomach as he sat by the soft light from the small survival heaters that each of them had on their belt. He looked at Svo'k, the other young Sith looked tired and even more angry than he had earlier his head was propped up against his knees as he leaned looking into the light with a blank expression on his face. Anakin sighed quietly and reached into his robe and retrieved the two protein bars he had stolen just before they left. He looked at Svo'k and down at the bars for a second, he should really keep them both for himself, but...he glanced back towards his friend and his fist closed around the food source that they did both need. Kriff it.

"Hey."

Anakin tossed one of the protein bars across the heat source to Svo'k he caught it and his face seemed to light up in a bit of confusion.

"What's this? We don't normally carry this..."

"Rules aren't for Sith. What were we supposed to eat? Shyrack? Squellbugs? Kriffing Tuk'atas?!"

Svo'k smiled for the first time all day and tore the wrapping off of the protein bar and bit in. The taste was unimaginable for something so plain and boring, it was one of those times when any food was good food...except for Squellbugs. Svo'k swallowed his first bite and grinned at Anakin.

"I'm NEVER eating Squellbugs again and Shyrack aren't much better and then you have to cook them in that stupid manner so that it gets hot enough to kill everything it could be carrying...but it takes all the moisture out. It's like chewing on a hydrospanner...thanks."

Both boys chuckled and devoured the rest of their protein bars, they passed the canteen back and forth taking enough water to survive, not nearly enough to rehydrate, but enough to preserve the status quo.

"You eating a Tuk'ata means you'd actually have to kill the thing and you know not get mauled by it...again. If we run into them, I guess I'll just have to save your ass again...for like the millionth time."

Anakin grinned, shook his head and scooped up a hand full of dirt at chucked it at Svo'k.

"Oh screw you! What about the time in the outer rim when you got food poisoning of all things and I had to finish the mission by myself because you couldn't leave the refresher for five minutes at a time?!"

Svo'k flinched as the dirt hit him and he started to laugh even louder right up until he brought up the food poisoning. Svo'k shuddered and his stomach turned.

"That was AWFUL. That's why we don't eat what we find..."

Svo'k looked down at the ground and then back to his friend, he was glad that things were feeling normal again at least just for the moment.

"That's when your eyes turned, you came back and poof yellow eyes. They were green when you left and yellow when you came back. You ever going to tell me what happened?"

The young Sith went quiet and propped his head up as he rested his arms against his knees, the smile faded from his face. Svo'k deserved to know, they shared everything and each of them knew more about the other than anyone should know about a friend. He looked down at the light.

"It was this whole thing..."

He glanced back to Svo'k.

"You know how we had our target right?"

Svo'k nodded.

"Yeah, Ji'dai Padawan."

Anakin rolled his eyes.

"He was no Padawan. I had to kill his entire family to get to him, his sister, mother, and father. Lord Realm said leave no witnesses, we knew that. What I wasn't prepared for even after doing all that was realizing that he wasn't a Padawan, he was younger than you and I were when Lord Realm found us. I remembered what he told us about why we were doing it, we had to set him free...so I closed my eyes and did it quick. When I opened them, I saw him lying there his head a few feet from his body. I stared down at him, I tried to cry but couldn't and felt this sense of power in my chest, I had freed him from his chains, and I knew that saving him from being shipped off to some Ji'dai temple was the right thing to do and that's when I caught my reflection in a cracked mirror over their fireplace and saw my eyes glowing yellow....never went back, Lord Realm says eventually I'll learn to control it between my natural color and yellow but for now to embrace it...you're jealous of my eyes, but somedays I'd do anything to have my green ones back..."

Svo'k sat there taking it all in, he could tell the story was unpleasant, but Sith had to do unpleasant things at times and it was for the greater good. He wanted to reach out and hug him but they were too old for that kid nonsense. He lowered his eyes into the light again and thought for a long moment before saying anything.

"Yeah, but this is the price we pay for being Sith. It's hard but you didn't murder him or his family, you saved them. He was going to be taken by the Ji'dai and become their slave, his family would have been slaves to him, because Ji'dai show no mercy. He'd have left them behind to suffer while he was off learning how to grow up and steal kids from their parents and murder them. You did the right thing."

The boys shared glances at each other, neither entirely sure if they had just rationalized an atrocity or if they were actually speaking the truth, the outsiders, the non-sensitives would call it an atrocity, but they didn't know...they were blissfully unaware of the raw ugly nature of life as a chosen Sith, they lived their entire lives under their protection and most never knew.

"Get some rest, I'll take first watch. I'll wake you in two hours, then I'll sleep...take it as my apology for being a jerk earlier."

Anakin smiled

"Thanks. See, now you're taking the lead. We're equals man. G'night."

Anakin curled up pulling his good over his face and slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Night..."

Svo'k nearly whispered in reply. It didn't take long for Svo'k to realize Anakin was asleep the two had shared a room together for half their lives, he knew what his friend sounded like and what his presence in the force felt like when he was asleep as much as he knew the back of his own hand. The smile faded from his face and he turned off the heater closest to him to conserve it's energy. It would charge during the day. He thought for a long time about the conversation the two of them had, he imagined the Ji'dai boy and his family, he debated the morality of it but settled on it being the right thing to do. If he was destined to be slave he'd want to be set free....he knew it.

Anakin had freed all of them and had earned his yellow eyes in doing so....Svo'k resigned himself to the fact that he would have to do something equally as unpleasant for his eyes to change. He nodded to himself in steadfast resolve and soon it was time to wake Anakin....

[Svo'k Lynd]

"I'm off to take a leak."

"Wait."

Said Svo'k sipping the last bit of water in the dry morning air.

"We are out of water, I'd hold it if you can. We can use the tablets on the way back if we have to...and yeah, unfortunately..."

Anakin's yellow eyes narrowed at Svo'k. Nope. Not going to happen, there was exactly one canteen and like hell he was going to do that and share the canteen.

"No damned way. We have one canteen that is empty. You're saying we piss in it, use the tablets and drink from that?"

Svo'k nodded.

"I don't like the idea anymore than you do dude, but we're out of water and we still have to get the artifact and go back and we're in the dessert. The wind may have died down but it's not like it's going to rain. If you've got a better idea I'm all ears, but this seems like our only option. The tablets purify it anyways it's in our head more than anything it's not like we're actually drinking anything but water."

Anakin groaned and stood on his toes for a second, he really did have to go but he could hold it if he had to. He tried to think of another option but one wasn't coming to mind in any short order at all.

"FINE. But as a last resort and we take turns, I fill it and purify it, I drink all of that then you do yours, that's the line and I don't care if we kriffing die I'm not crossing it."

Svo'k scrunched his face in disgust at the thought of anything but exactly what Anakin just said.

"Yeah that was my plan dude, did you seriously think I was proposing we drink each others?! NO way in kriffing hell. This is a last resort anyway, we'll use the tablets ONLY if we have to in order to survive, the sun will be up soon, come on lets get moving. We have to be back by sundown."

The nodded to each other and kept moving. The were close, they could both feel the dark energy swirling around something. Svo'k stopped dead in his tracks as he felt a sharp pain in his chest, it was if someone had taken a dark energy imbued knife and shoved it straight into him. He gasped in pain and looked down only to see nothing, he felt Anakin's eyes rest on him and Svo'k turned his head to see off in the distance a shimmer in the morning light against the dessert sand.

"There, do you see it?! Forget seeing it, do you feel that?!"

Anakin nodded, he felt something but nowhere near to the level Svo'k did. There was no pain, just pure darkness radiating from the object. He pulled his lightsaber from his belt and ignited the blade, he placed a free hand on Svo'k's back.

"Yeah, but it doesn't seem to hate me as much as it does you. You good?"

Svo'k took a sharp breath in and looked over to his friend before retrieving and igniting his own red blade.

"Uh huh. I'm fine, the pain left as fast as it came, I don't know what that was, I've never felt anything like it."

Good. You take left I'll go right.

Svo'k nodded and cautiously moved into a flanking position on the item in the difference. It was inanimate as far as he knew but it certainly was dark, the power it most hold within it must be unimaginable. As the two approached, they realized they were near the edge of a cliff, there were only three sides something could come at them from. The two young students crept slowly up on the item but Svo'k stopped short, not wanting to get too close to the cliff.

Anakin was lest reserved, he approached the item and knelt down beside it. It was a an amuelet on a worn silver and black chain. Quickly the young Sith scooped it up and held it in his hand, the symbols at the center of the amulet written in ancient Sith started to glow red, it sent a chill down the young boy's spine.

"Got it. Lets get out of here yeah?"

Svo'k's blue eyes narrowed and he nodded adamantly, he felt fear surrounding this amulet and he wasn't sure why, the pain was a warning, it had to be.

"For sure. I don't trust that thing man, do you want me to take it?"

He glared at Svo'k.

"No! I'm the one that grabbed it while you stopped twenty feet short Lord Realm needs to know that I have no fear, not saying you do, but I'll do anything for the mission Svo'k."

Anakin extinguished his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt.

Svo'k was less quick to extinguish his blade and instead held it at his side, he did not for one moment think they were out of danger yet which is why he showed caution.

"Yeah whatever, you can't complete a mission if you're dead Anakin. That's why I stopped. Take credit if you want, I don't care, we both found it."

Anakin grinned and slid the amulet into his pocket.

"You'll beat me with a lightsaber, but I've got you beat in ambition, it's like Lord Realm always says, Ambition is...."

Without warning a large Tuk'ata came out of nowhere and smashed into Anakin sending him flying back to the ground and knocking the breath out of him. He tried to react but couldn't but couldn't as he felt a sharp intense pain in his right leg immediately after hitting the ground.

Svo'k moved to react but had his own Tuk'ata to deal with, he spun on his heel and slashed at the massive beast's side spilling it's intestines on the ground as two more approached in the distance. One charged Svo'k and without hesitation he raised his blade and lifted the beast into the air with telekinesis and sent it flying over the cliff to it's death. He looked over to see the fourth Tuk'ata charging towards Anakin's position and force pushed it away hard, he heard the beast yelp and retreat. A he looked over to wear Anakin should be and instead saw the first animal growling at the cliff, Svo'k charged and cut the animal in two and forced pushed the remains out of the way. It was then he saw it.

A set of fingers clinging to the edge of the cliff, Anakin's knuckles were turning white as Svo'k dropped to his knees and clipped his saber to his belt. He looked down to see Anakin barely clinging to the edge of the cliff, his face bloodied.

"Give me your hand!"

Svo'k braced himself against the ground and leaned over reaching his left arm out to reach Anakin's.

The student looked up at Svo'k terror filled his yellow eyes as he tried to use the force to steady himself and give him the added strength he need to pull himself up but the pain was intense in his leg and he was starting to see stars when he blinked.

"My leg. It's kriffing broken."

He flailed and tried lift his right arm up to grab Svo'k's.

"Osik. You sure?"

Svo'k caught the tip of Anakin's sleeve and pulled his friend's arm up and quickly grasped it. He looked down at the friend he had known his whole life and realized that he had to save him, it's what he did. This wasn't the first time Anakin had gotten himself into a situation and had to be rescued. He had been teasing him earlier about saving his life for the millionth time, but it was true.

"I'm going to try to pull you up! Hold on tight!

Svo'k took Anakin's other hand that had been gripping the cliff and held it tightly at his wrist. He pulled with all his might and was able to get the other boy's chest partly above the cliff. That's when he felt the darkness of the amulet again, once more sending a sharp pain through his being. He felt his right hand slip but he felt the force pull the amulet from Anakin's pocket into his free hand as he held onto the other Sith student with all the remaining strength in his right arm. He tossed the amulet behind him and looked down at the face of helpless and squirming friend being held only by one of Svo'k's hands. He felt himself sliding towards the edge of the cliff as Anakin flailed.

"Fine, you've got it now, you win! Now get me up!"

Anakin wasn't sure he cared about the amulet anymore, all he cared about was being pulled to safety, he tried to push his foot against the rock face to help steady himself but the pain shot through him like a force of nature and he nearly gagged.

"STAY STILL OR YOU'RE GOING TO GET US BOTH KILLED!!!"

Sweat poured down Svo'k's forehead and he tried to hold on to Anakin's hand but he felt a chill sweep over him. His expression faded as he stared down into his friend's yellow eyes. He took a breath and tried to analyze the situation, how was he going to get Anakin back home with a broken leg? He wasn't sure he knew and he wasn't sure it was even possible. Svo'k's blue eyes looked away for a second and his arm relaxed slightly and a sinking feeling settled in his stomach.

Anakin looked up at his friend and saw his expression change and felt his arm relax slightly. He took a breath in.

"Svo'k?"

He said in a quiet somber tone.

Svo'k stared deep into the yellow eyes of his friend.

"I'm sorry."

He pulled his right arm back hard breaking Anakin's grasp and immediately unleashed a force push with his left hand sending his friend hurtling towards the rocks below. He saw the look of shock and betrayal in near slow motion as Anakin flew down and Svo'k heard him smash against the rocks below. Svo'k stood up and felt the last of Anakin's life force fade out of him, a burning sensation flooded over him, he wanted to cry but he could not, his eyes felt like the were on fire but no tears came. He stared over the cliff side, he could barely make out the bloodied body of his friend and brother below, he didn't know what to feel. He turned around and scooped up the amulet and placed it in his pocket before he felt something in the distance. He didn't move, he didn't flinch he knew what it was.

::I see you have retrieved the amulet young Svo'k. Where is Anakin.::

Svo'k took a breath in but didn't kneel before his Master who approached in the distance, instead he looked up at him, his eyes glowing a fierce fiery red for the first time.

"Down on the rocks dead. I killed him because I could not save us both, his leg was broken."

Realm crossed his arms and nodded.

::Regrettable but necessary. He showed weakness and you showed strength.::

Svo'k reached into his pocket and pulled the amulet out and offered it to Lord Realm with a cold look on his face.

"Here is your artifact, I don't know that it was worth it."

Lord Realm let out a breath and reached out and patted Svo'k on the shoulder just as he had done when they had met.

::No, it was Svo'k. This was a test and you passed, Anakin strong as he was failed. You were sent out with one canteen into the middle of nowhere against all odds to retrieve this. Only one of you was ever going to come back and Anakin had already figured that out, I watched you both the whole time. He almost killed you while you were asleep but he held back, every chance he had to deprive you of nourishment and weaken you, he held back. He had to choose between you and him and he repeatedly chose you, like a good friend. So when it came down to it, he was out of choices and you had to make one and you chose yourself. Sith do not have the luxury of having friends Svo'k, you are the only person that should matter to you because it is up to you save the galaxy from the evils of the Ji'dai. Friends get in the way and weigh you down, had you chosen to pull him up you would have both died trying to get home, but since you made the right decision, now you live and what's more you have graduated.::

Svo'k looked down at the ground, trying to process everything he had just heard, the vile truth of it all was stunning. He wanted to argue, in fact he wanted to lash out and kill Realm for orchestrating this whole thing. In this moment he felt more alone than he ever had in his entire life leading up to this day.

"I hate you."

Realm chuckled.

::Good. You should. One day Svo'k you surpass me and then you will kill me and take my place and train your apprentice in the way I have trained you. Now though, you have graduated from the lowly rank of an acolyte to a full fledged Sith Apprentice. You are now my only student and I will train you to be more powerful now than you can ever imagine.::

Realm took the amulet from Svo'k.

::Kneel.::

Svo'k looked up and let his arm fall by his side as he reluctantly took a knee before his master and lowered his head.

Realm took the amulet and pulled the chain put the chain around Svo'k's neck.

::This was given to me by my Master when I was your age, now I give it to you Svo'k, you will be a powerful Sith Lord in just a few years time. Arise.::

Svo'k let the amulet hang from his neck the darkness that surrounded it didn't hurt anymore, instead it penetrated deep within him..

"Yes Master."

::Now, get in the speeder. We're going to get his body and give him a proper funeral Pyre, his sacrifice deserves your respect. Never forget it Svo'k. You may mourn briefly, but you will use that pain to become stronger. Do you understand?::

Svo'k nodded quietly before looking back at his master.

"I do, I will miss him though."

::Naturally. As will I, he was a good student.::

With that Svo'k climbed into the speeder and caught the relflection of his glowing red eyes in the rearview mirror. That was what it took, that's what he had to do. Slowly he repeated the Sith code over and over again in his internal monologue.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken

He took a deep breath and a single tear rolled down his right cheek, just out of sight of his master, he casually reached up and brushed it away as the speeder sped off to find the body of his friend and brother and lay him to rest...today was the first day of his destiny and he wasn't sure how he should feel about it.....