Chapter 12: I will impart to you!

I breathed in, held it for a moment, then let it out.

The sun's light had completely died out hours ago, leaving me in pitch blackness. With no light to see by save for a glowrod and the inability to sleep, I meditated, keeping my senses open to danger.

I recognized the irony of how perfectly this matched my journey so far. I had wanted to restrain myself from using the Force, but I soon realized that not doing something about my leg would make my journey back to camp even longer.

Despite being a dead world, Korriban still thrummed with power. It was like hearing a heartbeat at the edge of perception. A withered, blackened heart, but the tune continued strong all the same.

Korriban was a primal world, one that espoused the rule of the strongest. No vegetation grew on its surface, forcing all life that walked its sands to be predators and fight each other for supremacy. It was a place without pity. No one would care if one more soul was lost in the wastes. The weak were devoured and the strong or the clever prospered.

It wasn't hard to see how the Sith came to be on this world. The cutthroat culture present today was already in place when the Dark Jedi exiles came and enslaved them. They didn't change anything, merely integrated themselves into what was already there.

Without Ajunta Pall and his successors, the Red-skinned Sith would have eventually butted heads with the Jedi and the Republic on their own due to their inborn desire to conquer.

I took the power of Korriban into myself to replenish my strength. I was exhausted. My fruitless chase across the dunes had used up more energy than I would have liked. Thankfully, Korriban was all too eager to give me what I needed.

But it wasn't for free. Korriban's power was naturally corruptive and it would be all to easy for it to overwhelm me. Instead of embracing the raging river, I built a mental dam to allow it to trickle in more manageable amounts. This kind of meditation was practically anathema to the Sith ideology, but I wanted control, not the loss of my inhibitions. Not now.

But Korriban didn't like to be controlled and so hammered away at the dam with the power and wrath of a howling hurricane. It tried to force sensations that weren't mine onto me. The hunger of thousands of predators that stalked its surface. The rage of the dead taken by its sands.

"There is nothing. There is only me," I muttered the last part of Darth Ruin's creed. My creed.

It was more of a reminder to myself that the only thing keeping me sane in this hellhole was my willpower.

When a crack appeared in the dam, I quickly sealed it. When the power threatened to spill over, I built it higher. Bit by bit, I snagged pieces of power from the storm that was Korriban until I was satisfied that I had enough for the task I had in mind.

Pulling myself from meditation, I directed my stolen power towards flushing the pelko bug toxin from myself. While I hadn't been taught to do this, I've found that the biggest obstacle to accomplishing something with the Force was realizing what was possible to do with it. Belief played a major part in being able to do anything.

When Luke convinced himself that he couldn't lift his X-Wing with the Force, he couldn't until he was shown by Yoda that it was possible. The same principle applied here.

I knew the Force could be used to deal with ailments of the body. While dark siders sucked ass at healing, they were very good at breaking things. Instead of directing it to heal me, I basically pointed the Force at the toxin in my bloodstream and said "sic 'em boys." It was crude and a proper Sith would probably scoff at my approach, but it worked.

While it wasn't complete, I started to get the "pins and needles" feeling rather than complete numbness in my leg. I poured more power into the effort as I continued to chip away at the toxin's hold on my leg.

It was an agonizingly slow process, but the joy of simply being able to feel my leg again overcame my frustration at its speed. By the time the sun came up again the next morning, I had full sensation. My limb could support my weight again, though very painfully due to the blisters. I took the time to apply bacta-laced bandages and pad the inside of my boot.

Only an idiot ventured out into the wastes of Korriban without at least a basic medkit. I managed to nab one from Renning's camp, though the soldiers didn't seem too bothered by it. I also snagged some MREs to stuff in my pack.

Instead of setting out immediately, I cracked into one of the portable meals to settle my rumbling stomach. I hadn't eaten since around noon yesterday and the "healing" took a good bit out of me. Sith MREs weren't exactly the height of luxury, but it was a far sight better than anything I had access to a year ago.

Freeze-dried nerf steak, freeze-dried veggies, freeze-dried fruit, a canteen of water, and a block of something that looked and felt suspiciously like hardtack. It covered the basic nutritional needs, but it was pretty bland and didn't include any seasoning.

I was more surprised that hardtack was still a thing in modern meals. Guess the Sith wanted to give their troopers a back-up bludgeoning weapon with their food.

Then again, these MREs were more of the "eat in case of emergency" type for soldiers and pilots deployed in the field rather than be intended for regular meals. That stuff needed to be able to last for a long time without refrigeration and hardtack was practically notorious for its shelf-life.

As I crunched my way through the hard biscuit as I waited for the rest of the meal to be rehydrated, I made a mental note to thank the quartermaster I got them from. At least the hardtack had some leavening agent in them so it didn't feel like I was eating a brick.

I was about halfway through my nerf-steak when I realized something was missing. I kicked myself for not noticing it sooner and chalked it up to my general exhaustion.

Namely, the massive pile of corpses I'd shoved further into the cave. The only indication that something had entered were a trail of bloody, three-toed footprints that led further into the cave.

Each was about three feet long and had left small divots in the stone where claws had dug in. Based on the size of its feet and the space between the footprints, whatever it had been was a quadruped at least twelve feet long, which didn't include a tail.

 Big, in other words. Whatever it had been had entered and eaten the dead shyrack without me noticing, literally passing right in front of me in the process.

What I noticed next had me drop the rest of my MRE and bolt out of the cave after hastily gathering my gear, the pain in my foot ignored in favor of the sudden adrenaline rush.

There hadn't been a set of footprints leaving.

...

Despite the bacta and bandages blunting most of the pain, the trip back to Lord Renning's camp was long, especially with the pronounced limp I had been forced to adopt and the breaks to change bandages, eat, and rehydrate. That said, I still managed to make good time and arrived before sundown.

Thankfully, pelko bugs are nocturnal predators, so I didn't encounter any more.

As I hobbled back into camp, Lord Renning looked up from his latest dissection. His cheerful expression quickly turned to one of disappointment.

"I take it that you had no success?" He asked unnecessarily.

"Oh no, I found a tuk'ata. A prime specimen even," I replied, exhaustion causing me to voice more of my frustration than I would usually allow, "I chased the damn thing to the far end of the valley, but I managed to stumble on a pelko bug swarm before I could subdue it."

"Given that you are still alive, I must assume that the swarm devoured the tuk'ata in question?" Oh boy. Renning was…displeased.

"I'm not sure, my lord," I admitted, "It was craftier than the others I pursued, so it might have survived. However, the trail was cold by the time I was mobile again."

And that stuck in my craw. It was the first time I had failed at something since coming to the Academy. Given that failure usually meant death here, it was understandably something I wanted to avoid.

"How unfortunate," Renning stated, his voice gaining a hard edge to it.

Crap.

"Our deal consists of you bringing me samples in exchange for knowledge," He continued. A malicious smile started working its way onto his face, "But I believe I will make an exception this time."

"Tell me, have you been taught to cast Force Lightning? I find that it is most effective at dealing with pelko bugs."

I was already starting to take unconscious steps backwards as I automatically shook my head. I knew damn well where this was going.

Electricity crackled around the fingers of both of his hands, "The only true way to learn it is to experience its effects for yourself. It is a lesson I learned from my master. Now, it is one I will impart to you!"

I tried to get away, but I wasn't nearly fast enough. The crash of lightning cut off my escape as everything became pain.

I collapsed to the ground, unable to do more than twitch and spasm as the Force Lightning poured into me. I could feel every ounce of anger and hatred that Renning used to fuel the attack, feeling them as my own. I felt more than heard the hoarse cry that left my throat.

Then suddenly, it stopped. I breathed in and out as I tried in vain to relieve the pain wracking my body.

"Do not worry, I will not kill you. Instead, let this serve as a reminder. I will not tolerate failure so long as you are in my service. I trust it will encourage your endeavors in the future."

I barely had the ability to look up at him, but I forced my eyes up regardless. Resentment, rather than fear, burned in my gut, over the pain. I wasn't afraid of the fat bastard.

I resented my helplessness, the inability to defend myself.

I knew he could sense it, but he continued smiling. The lesson wasn't over yet.

"There is nothing. There is only me," I whispered, too quietly for him to hear.

It was little comfort. I remembered screaming until my voice gave out just before finally falling unconscious.

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