Idiocity.

Malekith sat aboard the bridge of the Starsearcher, the dreadnaught given to him by the late brotherhood. It wasn't exactly a true dreadnaught, it was barely larger than a raider corvette, but it fit his needs almost perfectly. All of the important relics were in the hold, and he had a paid crew aboard to man the ship.

They currently sat above Coruscant, waiting to be allowed passage through the planetary defenses.

"Dreadnaught Starsearcher, what is your business planetside?"

"I have 13 new recruits for the Jedi, previously presiding on the Sith academy world of Korriban. Mind sending that up the chain?"

Almost immediately an entire wing of starfighters came out to direct him to the temple. The pilot looked to Malekith for approval, and they were brought to a landing pad just outside the temple itself.

Malekith made sure the children were in order, they had learned to not argue when he picked up a crate near them and squeezed it like a juice packet, and stood before the cargo ramp.

A few paces before them, stood 8 Jedi knights, all stock still.

"Wha.....what are you.....", a tall, human female spoke.

"I am The Grand Curator, I am here to place these children within your care. They....are going to need a lot of work."

The Jedi moved forward to take the children, but suddenly one of the oldest, René, pulled her lightsaber out of it's holster and grabbed one of the others, holding the blade to the young boy's throat."They aren't taking me, Malekith!", she spoke with all the venom a teenage girl with access to supernatually dark power could muster.

"René, it's this, or me. You do not want me."

"Easy, we refuse to take her....Sith scu-argfg"

"Careful now, young man, we might say something that could get us in trouble. I brought these children to you, because I cannot teach them, but you've forced my hand. Your prejudice will make it too late for René, but the other children....", Malekith put a steady pressure on each of there throats. He posed it like a threat....trying not to reveal that he couldn't do much more than that. It took a *lot* of concentration to choke someone, and even after a decade, Malekith likely wasn't much more trained than the knights infront of him, at least force wise. In a real fight though....

"You will take these children, I will keep René. I'll take my leave now."

He stepped back onto the ramp, shooting his arm out to grip René by the neck as he passed, holding her away from him as she tried to escape his hold.

once the door closed, he dropped her." 5 seconds."

"I..I was scared.. I've been told so mu-"

"You held your lightsaber to a 6-year-old boy's throat today.", Malekith said in an icy calm.

"I.... I'm sorry."

"To your room, I'll decide what to do with you later. You won't need this for awhile."

He grabbed her lightsaber from her belt, and placed it on his own.

She looked like she wanted to object, but she stayed quiet. As she walked away he spoke softly, "You chose wrong, René"

--------

It took 2 weeks to reach Rusaan.

When they had reached the planet, he dragged René to a shuttle and they went planetside.

René didn't talk to him unless prompted, he had put her through two weeks of brutal training bordering on flat out torture. The reason he had sent the children to the Jedi was because he knew himself. He knew he would push anyone he trained to the absolute limit of their capabilities, leaving no room for anything else.

Malekith searched for second, then found what he was looking for.

"René, I want you to reach out, like I showed you, tell we what you see on Rusaan."

Without complaint, the young girl closed her eyes. In another world, she would have been darling. She had long, wavy brown hair and crystal grey eyes. Her skin was practically porcelain, too bad it would likely be unrecognizable by the end of the week.

"It feels empty..... like I'm looking at something that doesn't exist.....wait, I hear something, very quiet.... it's screaming."

Malekith was taken aback, he couldn't hear anything.

"Good, go farther."

"It feels....dead....am I hearing dead people?"

"In a way, yes. But they aren't completely dead, more like they are no longer."

"Are no longer what?"

"In general, they are no longer... anything."

"That doesn't make sense to me, but you're never wrong, so what am I missing?"

"Why don't we go see?"

He took them to the center of the dead zone. and spotted what he was looking for. Taking them in for a landing, he and René disembarked.

He took René through the tunnels, down to the objective of this little journey.

"Why...what is this...and why does it exist?"

"This, is the brotherhood of darkness and the army of light, all in one neat little package."

"What do you-....oh....oh force no....why?"

"How does one man cripple an empire?"

"Deceit. Lies and Deceit."

"That's part of it, what's the other part?"

".... underestimation. He would have to look like a small fish."

"Now, who do you think could have deceived the lord Kaan into creating this?"

"Lord Kaan!? How....Bane....Bane did this."

She said it, but without any venom. Then she broke out in laughter.

"He.....He was right. We were doomed to fail from the start...and...hahaha....when no one believed him....he showed them why!"

She laughed for a few minutes. As she did so, Malekith placed a hand to the thought bomb.

"Come....place your hand on it's surface..just like me."

René tentatively did as he said and gasped, jolting away.

"Why!?"

"To show you"

"Show me what!?"

"Never underestimate a single man."