『Landing on Dromund Kaas』

A full day had gone by and the Phantom came out of at a hyperspace vector directly outside the planetary system of Dromund Kaas. Despite the Sith Empire being virtually extinct, the lost City of the Sith being long since abandoned, the world wreaked of darkness. Those not fortified against fear, loss and other attributes contributing to the Dark-side of the force, were susceptible.

Ento was standing on the bridge looking over the dark world, covered in overgrown vegetation. It was clear this world was unnaturally covered in a dark nexus, one which could easily turn one's emotions against themselves or others.

Meetra Surik too stared down at the planet with a prominent frown across her lips. The fact that she died here all those years ago, and that she was returning now, didn't sit well. Sparks of anger rose in her, but at the same time they were quickly drowned out by her presence as a wound in the force.

Revan entered the bridge, with his hands folded behind his back, he looked to his compatriots. "Once we retrieve the data core from the Ebon Hawk, we'll be on our way to Serenno." His gaze dropped to Ento who was growing curious of the world. "We are not here to explore, the world itself is treacherous... Probably more so than when people actually lived here."

Unknown to them, there was a settlement of beings on the world, but they weren't openly taking residence in the old Sith City, but in their temples. The Disciples of the Dark Side were here, and they were already aware of the Phantom's presence...

"Are we there yet?" Vaylin whined as she entered the bridge soon after.

Ento blinked and turned his head to look over at her, just in time to see her yawn openly and scratch at her neck just below the jaw. "Yes, we'll be landing shortly."

Vaylin smiled lightly when he responded to her before looking over to the T3-series utilities droid who was whistling a cheery song and chirping every now and then.

"Like I said before you came into the room," Revan turned towards her, "No exploring."

Vaylin pouted at the Jedi Master who was warning her not to wander off after they landed. Her eyes moved towards Ento who cocked a brow and gestured his head to the side, indicating to follow what the Master says.

Personally Ento had a bad feeling about the planet surface, mostly because of the Nexus. If anything he was worried for Vaylin due to her fragile and strange mindset that was foreign to him.

Turning back to the view port as the droid was bringing the ship into a descending point of reentry, he listened to the ship's internal instruments. Nothing seeming to be out of order.

In the next fifteen minutes the ship was already breaking through the atmosphere and heading towards a predetermined location. It was a ways away from the abandoned settlement, out in the forests where creatures and dark side imbued predators awaited.

The closer they got to the surface and the temples below, Vaylin felt a strong pull. It was a strange sensation, like an urge, but it was someone else's and at the same time her own. She could feel her emotions being amplified, overwhelmed, and she was beginning to fear loss of her new found liberties.

She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, reminiscent of a freight train...

The more this feeling seeped into her, the more she felt she couldn't trust anyone. She hardly knew the people present, she had never met them, she had only met one person here who had saved her from what she may have become.

Vaylin looked to Ento as he was still paying more attention to the outside world, rather than looking to her. She slowly crossed her arms, hugging herself.

'Come my child...' A familiar disembodied voice called out to her, but didn't sense the presumed source. 'You are my best creation... The power I gave you... Crush them, force them to their knees before you... You are the Heiress to the Dragon, they are to kneel to you...'

Contorting her face, she scowled, at the nearby console. The cold fondness in the voice belonged to none other than Valkorion, the Sith Emperor. The presence she felt was just the dark side itself, not her father. It didn't carry the essence of the Immortal Emperor. It wasn't him and yet she found herself being harassed with images and visions she didn't want to see.

Revan's gaze centered on the young boy before looking to Vaylin, he could see how bothered she was, it was clear as day.

Walking over to her, he placed a hand on the blonde's head and emitted protective force energy around her mind. Like a shield, she was protected from the dark nexus from exerting its influence over her, though only briefly.

Feeling clarity return to her mind, Vaylin looked up at the Master who had his hand planted on the top of her head. "Thank you..." She closed her eyes partially and smiled before looking to the paneled floor at her feet.

Although he had shielded her mind, a headache had emerged following the attack, which was making her eyes throb in her skull.

Ento glanced over at her as he could feel her pain and raised a hand, reaching out with the force. A light greenish blue glow surrounded his hand and shown toward her like a ray of light, healing and revitalizing energies focusing in on her.

Through Revan's protection and Ento's healing, Vaylin was able to calm down a bit more. However she felt ashamed by the thoughts that the strange presence had prodded her with.

The wanting, the yearning, to dominate and possess what she already knew she had was undeniably there. It was a trait that her father had and many Sith before him, yet she still lacked the knowledge of who her father truly was.

Ento hadn't told her what he sensed in that throne room.

When she parted her lips to speak, Ento just nodded and smiled at her.

"I'm going to go lay down... I don't think I can leave the ship..." Her eyes wandered to the forests they were closing in on before turning away. The ship was shaking ever so slightly from turbulence caused by the current windy planetside conditions, but it wasn't too rough.

Entering the Captain's quarters, she face planted into the pillows before locking the door.

Ento, Meetra and Revan had made their way towards the airlock by now, having passed the room Vaylin had locked her in. It only took them a few minutes to collect some supplies from the hold they passed through and went on their way as the droid landed the ship.

The ramp lowered to the root sewn undergrowth of the forests.

"The ship is a few klicks from our current position," Revan informed the two as he still remembered where he had parked it. The ship had been long since parked here, having never been claimed for the past three thousand nine hundred years.

"Why'd we land so far away...?"

"This was the closest clearing we could find, the forests seemed to have grown out of control," Meetra defended the current landing zone, though that wasn't really a good excuse.

"We could have gotten it without ever landing the ship... We could have jumped down above the Ebon Hawk, get what we were looking for and abscond with it." Ento muttered under his breath, not really telling them off, but he was definitely onto something. It was how they had gotten on board the foundry, without even landing or docking conventionally.

Revan who had heard his muttering, looked over the boy as they were walking through the forest, before looking forward. They had to be on high alert. With the dark side nexus on this world, they could start seeing things such as desired pleasures and undesired loss, or perhaps imitations of their long lost enemies. He had seen many Jedi turn to the dark side and betray their friends, and everything they loved, he too had fallen before so he knew.

Meetra kept a lightsaber in her hand, her eyes shifting around their surroundings.

Ento however left his weapons hanging on his belt, his hands folded behind his back. Unlike the three of them, he was the least alert, but his mind was now closed off entirely.

The boy could feel the tendrils of the dark side trying to get in, like prying at an impossible to open jar of pickled vegetables. They couldn't enter, so they couldn't tempt or corrupt him.

His eyes however were a different story. The mist which overtook the grounds soon after landing, was everywhere. From the corner of his eye, he was pretty sure he could see Vaylin, but his senses still placed her on board the Phantom.

A frown formed over his lips as every time he blinked, the figure in the corner of his eye, was getting closer. When he turned his head to the side however, just as they were a few inches away from the side of his face, the figure was gone...

Meetra looked to the young padawan who was filled with an awkward feeling, "Ignore it, Ento... They're illusions created by the Nexus, it's trying to make you open your mind. Keep up your psyche block."

"Do you see them too?" Ento looked to Meetra as she had told him to ignore them.

She narrowed her eyes as she could see a corrupted pasty white cracked skin of a figure with the resemblance of Atton Rhand standing directly behind Ento. A man who she had left behind just before rescuing Revan, only to fall at the hands of traitorous Scourge.

"Yes," Slowly and hesitantly turning away, she continued to walk beside Revan.