*Meanwhile a sleek silver shuttle droned toward the Korunnal Highland a single entity on board a man; if he could be called such a thing. He had returned from solitude and hiding, for too long now the Sith had become lost and weak. Far too many sought power, these weaklings banded together and had taken power from the strong.

The Sith on board was nearing the end of his life, he was late forties, all power and knowledge was his. Yet an ancient scroll was said to be buried somewhere beneath the soil of Korunnal and Vortex would make it his own. With this last secret he would bring power back to the Sith Order and he would restore the Sith to former strength and glory.

"Two there should be, one to embody the power, the other to crave it." Bane's rule of two, the infamous Sith Ari who had reshaped the Sith turning their biggest weakness into their greatest strength. Now the galaxy hung thick with pretender's to the Sith, they knew not real or true power, they tied themselves to others who were weak. They were not liberated from their chains, they were deluded and their strength dilated. Vortex had attempted to train an apprentice before, but she had betrayed the rule of two, and Vortex had destroyed her. It had taken him many years to train her and he had now almost given up hope. So he was surprised and intrigued when he landed in a clearing and felt the unrestrained darkness of another being. He could tell from the rawness that this being was untrained, however this did not make them worthy, there was only one way to discover this.*

*He strode forward, his dark black robes flowing behind him as he moved like the wind, he fed of the malice of the jungle, he quenched his hunger upon the glory of the dark side.*

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*Lance rose, his two loyal Akk companions appeared snuffling around his feet. Something stirred out there in his jungle. He could feel the power of it, the forest stirred like Lance had never felt it before, he narrowed his dark eyes.*

*He leaped with nimble grace; quite unbelievable for a man of his size. He landed with a thud, spraying up a small amount of water and dust as he landed. His powerful thigh and calf muscles then began to propel him forward at an alarming rate. His Akk dogs running beside him, their tongues lolling out of their vicious toothed mouths.

He surged forward and onward, the vibrohields striking his back softly with each giant step, twigs and branches scraped at his clothing and trees whizzed past him upon either side, he darted forward, dodging under low branches, weaving around and between trees and holes. Then he saw the slender cloaked figure before him and he skidded to a halt, the heels of his boots digging in. He immediately bent his knees into a shot knee position and drew the vibroshields from off his back and strapped them to each forearm; which were roughly the length of of a normal human male's shin bone. He then leaped forward to hammer the edges of his shield downward.*

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*Darh Vrotex Lord of the Sith felt the power of the being grow stronger. Sensing the being was not difficult, but locating him was, what with the darkness of the forest with the fact that detecting another in the force was never an accurate science, but he knew that the being was growing closer. He drew upon the dark side for it could not be certain that the being meant no harm.*

*Then he heard the rushing of the tree branches and the whipping of small twigs, then a massive hulk of a man appeared. He was a Goliath, with hands large enough to entomb and quite possibly crush a humanoid skull. The dark skinned man skidded to a halt kicking up dirt as he did so. Vortex raised his head slightly, he saw the bend of the big man's legs and new he would spring forward. As the big man flew through the air Vortex flipped to his right out of harms way.

The dark skinned man's shields plunged into the earth where Vortex had stood moments before. He whipped his lightsaber into his hand and ignited the crimson blade, he then struck out to strike at the larger man, but he was quicker then he expected. The man cried out as he heaved his shields free from the earth, orientating his left arm he positioned the vibroshield so the crimson blade he held smashed against it, sending the hilt in his hand rattling and reverberation up his arms.*

*Vortex snarled and dwelled upon his hate and anger and quickly gathered energy, expelling it away from himself, casting out a rather volatile field of energy.*

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*He was flung backward some distance, his back striking the ground, one of his vibroshields was sent flinging from his arm and it flew through the air and thwacked into the body of a tree. The wind was knocked out of him, yet coughing and spluttering he rose. His free arm now grasped out and he called aloud.*

"Rek'away'ar nitroku Pelekotan."

*Through instinct alone he summoned the fury of the jungle and soon a throbbing buzzing filled the air. Then the Sith Lord was met by the jabbing stings of one hundred angry wasps as they flew out of the nearest tree to drive their poison barbs into his body and cause him great discomfort and pain.*

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*He was striding forward to intercept his foe, to descend upon him and move in for the killing blow. Suddenly the air filled with the drum beat of a hundred wings and the tin specks grew into a drone of angry wasps, each armed with a poison barb, each insect the size of his thumb. They mercilessly attacked him, he was quite caught of guard although he had felt the explosion of energy from his foe as he summoned upon the force to drive the wasps to attack. Anger was easy to summon, especially after he was stabbed in the arm by a wasp he let get too close. The pain of the sting and the burning of the venom fuelled him further.

He clenched then unclenched his fist and a blast of lightning radiated forth, the tendrils of energy searing through the insect carcasses and repelling them away, incinerating their small bodies. Half parts of crispy wasp pieces crunched beneath his boots as he strode forward. He span and weaved his blade about him as he moved forward, he unleashed yet a further burst of energy to quickly surge forward and cover the distance between himself and the hulking giant.*

*He then levelled the tip of his blade at the larger man's chest.*

"Yield and bow before me, submit your self to the will of the dark side."

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*He shielded his eyes from the sudden bright light, he watched on in amazement as the energy tendrils lashed forth and obliterated the insects within a second. Before he could even move the tall gaunt man was upon him, the throbbing pulsing blade he had drawn he found levelled at his chest.

He understood the words, and was impressed by the power and strength the being wielded. He bent his left knee and descended toward the ground and knelt, he bowed his head and placed his large hands upon the ground.*

"You know the full strength of Pelekotan and all its power."

*The Sith Lord turned his dark yellow eyes upon the man know knelt before him, the man's crown level with his chest.*

"I can teach you to harness the true power of the force, but to do so I need you to abandon any attachment, family and possession and to leave your old self behind."

*The large man tilted his head upward, he cast his dark eyes upon the powerful being before him, he then nodded his head once.*

"I have no family, the attachments I have are expendable. I seek only power and knowledge, with power I can take anything, with knowledge I can see how best to direct my power so I am victorious."

*A slow smile crept across the Dark Lord's Humanoid he was pleased and impressed by this response.*

"Then chose a new name, and rise my apprentice."

*The big man paused a moment, then responded with his thick accent.*"Invictus."

*The Sith nodded.**The man before him realised his strength lay in his physique and physical prowess and his spirit as much as it did in the force.*

"A good choice. Now rise Darth Invictus and ascend to true power."

*The Korun rose slowly.*"Thank you my Master."*He said, his deep gravely voice booming out.*

*The Sith then gestured to the weapons the man had wielded.*
"Leave those behind, you will not need them."
*As the man obligingly and unquestioningly did so Invictus stored his own weapon then drew forth from his belt a saberstaff and he held it out to the big man.*

"For now you will take the weapon of my former apprentice, you will study it and use it well, I believe it will lend itself well to you, and in time you will learn to build your own. Now we have work to do."

*With a flick of his cloak the slender man turned upon his heels and began to stalk away. The muscular Korun followed, he attached the weapon to the bandoleer that had held his vibroshields. It was far lighter and now he found it easier to move as he obediently followed the Sith Lord forward toward his destiny.*

*It did not take Darth Vortex long to establish which cave housed the artefact he sought. All ancient Sith artefacts had a pungent air about them, they were often imbued with the dark side or the knowledge they stored had been injected into them through its use. This made them not too difficult to locate if one knew what they were looking for.

Vortex rarely travelled, he moved in secrecy and travelled under the alias of an aristocrat. Trinkets and talismans of the ancient Sith Lord's meant little to him, he did not need their force umbued strengths for he had the full power of the force at his disposal. Yet it had been knowledge and intrigue that had drawn him to Haruun Kal. Once day his apprentice would know of all the teachings and when they day came he would rival his Master and would wrestle the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith from him. Only a strong user of the dark side could claim the title. That was the way Lord Bane had orchestrated it and that was the manner in which the Sith line remained strong, with only a stronger superior apprentice killing and taking the mantle from his Master, thus with each succession came a more powerful individual.*

*He turned to his apprentice as they walked through the cave, the bigger man having to duck to avoid the low ceiling.*

"You said you have had vissions?"

*The large man nodded.*

"My visions involved you, although I did not know who you were until I met you. I now know that a greater destiny awaits me."

*Vortex followed a tunnel around to his left, how the Sith Master knew where he was going was beyond Invictus.*

"Difficult to see the future is. The future is never clear, it is always in motion. Yet a powerful being who bends the force to his will can also shape the future and forge his own destiny."*Vortex said his voice echoing around the tunnel.*

"Before you can even begin to do this, you must cast away your chains, break free and embrace the dark side."

*Invictus' lower tone rang out.*"Then teach me Master."

*Vortex nodded a few times as he proceeded walking.*

"Many millennia ago, the Sith were amassed in great numbers similar to how they are now. They were plentiful, and had an Order that closely resembled that of the Jedi. However what drives all Sith is ambition and the hunger for power, it is what drives us and gives us strength. However if not under control it can destroy us, and make us weak.

The Sith were ruled by a single powerful leader who would be brought down by the collaborative efforts of the numerous lesser and weaker individuals. This process would repeat and repeat itself, fracturing the Sith and making them weaker and weaker, with each new leader being weaker then the last and usurped by the combined strength of weaker individuals. Lord Bane changed this, he constructed the rule of two, turning this weakness into a strength. He dictated that there should only be one Master and one Apprentice. One to embody the power the other to crave it, the Master chooses a worthy apprentice and trains him. It is the task of the apprentice to become strong and to overthrow and kill their Master. This ensures that only a strong apprentice who is more powerful then the Master takes his place. The individual dies, but the Sith live on and continue to grow in strength."

"With the fall of Palpatine once more several pretenders were left to claim this power for themselves. In time the Sith spiralled back into the ways of the old, with many Order's comprised of several weaker individuals and a single leader, in time those weaker will amass and take down their leader and so the Sith grow weak whilst the Jedi remain united and strong. I invoke the rule of two so that you may live by the truth and become truly strong and bring the Sith out of this demise."

*Vortex's feet ground to a halt he then placed his hand upon the wall.*

"It is here."*He drew his plasma blade and easily cleft through the rock, cutting a neat circle he then removed the plug and delved into the alcove, his hand returned grasping a rusty metal box. He then deactivated his blade and looked pleased. Then with his apprentice in tow he moved through the caverns and returned to the surface and the highland.*