New Time

Cleo and her apprentice Beta were leaving Korriban on an undercover mission to assassinate traitor that had information on the Sith fleets. Within their fury-class interceptor, the two set out. They were prepared for a long journey, so they stocked plenty of food, drink, and other daily necessities.

Sitting in the commanding officer seat on the bridge, Cleo's face is illuminated by the large holoprojector. She is a gorgeous human with long blonde hair, flawless figure, and piercing amber eyes that glow a sith yellow.

She looks to be around her early twenties, but from the cold expression on her face, you could easily see that she has been through more than most.

Although she doesn't often talk about her past, only a select few of her closest friends know, along with her apprentice, Beta, who is currently in the pilot seat guiding the interceptor out of the hanger and into the atmosphere.

Cleo was born into a slave family on Ziost, where she lived a life of being abused by her master's wife, who was sadistic and liked to beat and torture her slaves. The wife especially focused on Cleo because of her beauty, which the wife didn't believe should be seen on a slave. By the time Cleo turned 9, her father died from overwork, and her mother soon followed due to heartbreak and torture from the master's wife.

That day marked the beginning of Cleo's revenge, in her anger and fury, she awoke her abilities in the force, and in secret trained her powers of the darkside, channeling her rage into becoming stronger.

By the time she turned 10, she force choked the wife to death, and used the remote she held to deactivate and remove her slave collar. She then went on to kill every single other member of the household, including all the guards that mistreated her and other slaves.

She escaped and lived a hard life in the slums for half a year until a sith lord felt her presence through the force and decided to take her in as an apprentice. She ended up having a high affinity towards the darkside of the force, and quickly became stronger until 7 years later she herself held the title of sith lord. She was considered a once in a millennium prodigy in the force, and she was able to master its abilities faster than even the greatest of geniuses.

Almost 18 years old, she completed a multitude of tasks for the Sith Empire, and by the time she turned 20, she already had become a Darth, taking up the moniker of Darth Fury.

She spent another year getting stronger and fighting the Galactic Republic before she decided to take in an apprentice, eventually choosing Beta, a Lethan Twi'Lek that caught her eye.

While on Korriban visiting the academy, she saw Beta being bullied by a group of sith purebloods. She ended up finding out that Beta was previously a slave, who awakened to the darkside, and killed her master. Feeling a sense of camaraderie towards the twi'lek, she chose her as her apprentice, and they have spent the past two years together since then.

Although their relationship is master and apprentice, they have become good friends, and are often seen joking with each other. Beta has come to see Cleo as a big sister, and she looks up to her as both a master and friend.

After clearing the atmosphere of Korriban, Beta prepares the interceptor for hyperspace along with their X2-C3 imperial astromech they nicknamed Fox due to his high-pitched beeps and black and red-orangish coloring, just like a red fox.

Last they heard, their target was heading towards Hutt space, so they decided to set Nar Shaddaa as their first target.

A couple of seconds later, the interceptor sped into hyperspace, disappearing from Korriban space.

The two sith went towards the communications room, which they had refitted to be a lounge for their long space travels. It had the famous holochess game, Dejarik, along with other games, books, and things to keep the girls occupied during their travels.

Both of them walked towards the couch and flopped down, this hyperspace jump was going to take a while, so they decided to relax.

Little did they realize that their hyperspace jump was somehow sent off course into a wormhole parallel with the hyperspace lane. A white flash occurred, and everything went back to normal. Neither of the girls noticed, nor did Fox.

Hours turned into days, while the girls lounged around waiting for their ship to leave hyperspace.

Soon enough, they felt the characteristic shaking of the ship signaling they were out of hyperspace, and they were soon looking at Nar Shaddaa.

*Yaaawn* Cleo stood up off the couch and stretched, hearing her joints popping after a long nap on the couch.

She searched for Beta, but she was nowhere to be seen, so she walked to the bridge, and sure enough, Beta was seen in the pilot's seat staring at Nar Shaddaa.

Seeing Beta looking absentminded, Cleo asked, "What's up Beta? Something wrong?"

Beta was startled, and she quickly turned to face Cleo, "Master, I haven't been to Nar Shaddaa in a while, but doesn't it look different than usual?"

Cleo strolled towards the front windows of the interceptor, and laid her eyes on the planet, and her eyes went wide, it looked different. Last time Cleo was there, it was not nearly as developed. Although it has always been known as "Smuggler's Moon", it was filled with large cities, but now it was starting to look like a miniature Coruscant, the entire planet seemed to be a city.

"You are right, that is too different to be Nar Shaddaa, check our coordinates, maybe we somehow got off route." Cleo commanded.

Beta scurried to the nearby holoprojector, and she checked the star chart, finding they were indeed at Nar Shaddaa.

This left both girls confused, as they had visited the planet last year for another mission, but there was no possible way it got this developed in that short of time.

While they were trying to figure out their predicament, they didn't know the stir they caused among the other force sensitive users of the galaxy.

-----

"Ugh..." The many jedi masters of jedi temple were reeling from the strong wave they felt through the force just moments ago.

It came from the direction of Hutt space, and carried a dark feeling, something only the strongest masters of the temple were able to feel.

The council members quickly convened, and held a meeting regarding the disturbance they felt.

Grandmaster Yoda was the first one to speak out, "Dark disturbance in the force there is. Send someone to investigate, we must."

All members of the council nodded at that statement.

Windu was quick to follow up, "At the moment, we have most masters and knights spread out on the many battlefields, Master Kenobi, Kamino is close to Hutt space, take Knight Skywalker and go there and find the origin of the dark presence we felt.

Obi-Wan nodded, "Should we take troops too or go alone, this past battle has done a lot of damage to Kamino."

"We cannot take battle ready ships into Hutt space, take your personal ships and go alone."

With that, the discussion ended, and after the council members away from the temple turned off the transmission, Yoda stood up, and while his back was facing Windu, he stated, "Meditate on this, I must," and left the room to go towards his personal quarters.

-----

"WHO IS IT?!" The rage filled voice of Palpatine sounded throughout his office, along with the banging of his hands on his desk.

He had been directing the war for a little while by now, and he had thought he was the only Sith in the galaxy left, but that hateful master of his must have lied to give him a false sense of comfort.

Now he would have a wild card in the mix, and he hated not being in control, he needed to resolve the conflict fast, or he might lose everything he had worked for thus far.

His hands were currently tied, and he had no extra manpower to send to the location of the disturbance, so instead he took another route of monitoring the jedi to see the results of their investigation, as he was sure they would send someone.

-----

Back on the ship, Cleo and Beta quickly hid their presence, in case of Jedi on the planet.

They knew something was amiss, but just decided to land and figure it out later. They Beta expertly maneuvered the ship to a landing port, and they donned their armor and sith robes, opting to wear their hoods, just in case.

Both Cleo and Beta were speed type Sith, focusing on light weight armor, and faster movements. Cleo wielded a double-bladed lightsaber, that could also split into two separate sabers. The hilts were black and silver with red accents, which made them look both exquisite and deadly. Currently, she had both sabers hanging from her hips underneath her long, black robes, which obscured her face and body.

Beta wielded a single curved-hilt saber, which she designed to have black metal all around, and a black wood grip, giving it a more rustic and earthy feel. Similarly to her master, she had it attached to her waist, underneath her black robes, which covered her red lekku, along with the rest of her body.

They decided to visit a cantina to gather information while fueling up, but honestly, they were just excited to get out of the ship for the first time in days, both girls were starting to feel claustrophobic.

Both walked to the back of the ship, and hit the button for the ramp, which launched a big blast of gas while depressurizing, obscuring their view of the supposedly recently developed smuggler's moon.