Hello everyone,

Welcome back to another Malak episode. Sorry again about the inconsistent upload schedule but we have a lot of stuff going on at the moment. Enjoy!

 3,946 BBY - Somewhere

Malak opened his eyes slowly. The last thing he remembered was the pain of a rock colliding with his skull, and now his vision was cloudy. Where am I? Malak thought to himself. He looked around. His one remaining wrist and ankles were shackled to the wall, and nothing around him looked like Tython at all. Across one end of the room, he could see golden, stained glass tanks, as well as what looked like a wheel carrying multiple samples of blood.

And that’s when he realized something…

I am on the Star Forge

‘‘Rise and shine, my old Apprentice!’’ A voice called out. Malak turned, seeing Revan walking towards him, slowly. Malak tried to speak, but quickly remembered that Revan’s Apprentice had taken off his prosthetic jaw during their confrontation. Nonetheless, Revan answered Malak’s questions anyway, sensing what he was thinking. ‘‘If you think I brought you all the way from Tython to this place just to kill you…       You would be gravely mistaken, Malak. That would be a waste of both my time and my plans.’’

Revan then leaned close to Malak, placing one hand on his head, and then proceeding to shove something inside where Malak’s jaw had once been..    A vocabulator. The vocabulator instantly glued itself to Malak’s throat, accessing his vocal chords and allowing him to speak. ‘‘What do you want from me Revan? Why have you brought me to The Star Forge if you aren’t even going to exact your revenge and kill me!?’’ Malak asked, demanding to have answers.

Revan scoffed, looking at the wheel full of the blood samples, then at the golden tanks, then back at Malak. ‘‘Oh, you’re REALLY not as smart as I thought you were. Think about it….     Why are there cloning tanks in these chambers? Why is there a wheel carrying samples of blood…?’’ Malak’s eyes widened at the realization of what Revan was saying. ‘‘You’re..   You’re replicating a high Midichlorian Count in the hopes nothing goes awry in the blood transfer…     And you have test subjects inside all these tanks..’’

Under the mask, Revan smiled. ‘‘Good…       You’re figuring it out now.’’ Revan reached for both sides of his head, removing his hood, then his mask. And the sight that lied before Malak’s eyes made him tremble. Scars were blistering all over Revan’s face, and a black shade surrounded his flaming orange eyes. And Malak instantly knew the truth. ‘‘You’re trying to save yourself from your own Dark Side corruption, aren’t you?’’ Revan frowned. ‘‘Not my OWN darkness…         His darkness, Malak..’’

Malak’s eyes only widened more. ‘‘You’ve been possessed by another spirit, despite already inhabiting a clone body?’’ Revan nodded. ‘‘I’ve been keeping the failures in my Sith Academy in those tanks as test subjects for the transferring of a high Midichlorian Count. So far, none of them have produced an M-Count suitable enough for my next body, but with you…     I am fully confident your blood will produce a substantial enough M-Count that my next body will last far longer than my current body.’’

Revan turned towards the door, and walked away from Malak, but before he left, Malak overheard him speaking to someone else. ‘‘Watch him.’’ Revan said, putting his mask back on before leaving the room. The door slammed shut, and Malak saw Atton Rand walking towards him, an injection needle in hand. Atton grabbed Malak by the head, jamming the needle into the side of his neck.

Atton then removed the needle, which now carried a sample of Malak’s own blood. He turned to a table next to the wheel, picking up a glass vial and slowly injecting the blood into the vial. As he did this, Malak could sense something going through him. Hatred. Resentment. All signs of inner conflict between Atton and his own darkness.

‘‘How long have you been his Apprentice for, boy?’’ Atton turned to Malak, just as he placed the vial in an empty slot built into the wheel. ‘‘Why do you care? Why do you care about me especially of all things?’’ Atton fired back, placing the vial into the slot. Malak, however, only continued asking more questions. ‘‘How do you feel about being Revan’s student..?’’

Atton looked back at him, this time, with more annoyance in his eyes. ‘‘I don’t have time for this. My Master tasked me with watching you until he returns from Korriban. Now, stop asking me questions before I foil whatever plan he has in mind by executing you…’’ Malak was caught by surprise almost immediately. ‘‘You mean you don’t have any idea what your Master’s been doing this whole time?’’

Atton stopped, taking a deep breath. ‘‘He likes to hoard secrets from me.’’ He turned around slowly, fully locking eyes with Malak. ‘‘At first, I thought it was because he was unsure about having me as his Apprentice after you had killed his original body. After all, you are a poor excuse for a Lord of the Sith….’’ Atton trailed off for a moment, taking a moment to gain his composure.

‘‘But it’s worse. He keeps telling me I’m a promising student, and yet, I know what he really thinks of me…        He sees me as a means to an end. I am yet to figure out what that ‘end’ may be, though..’’ Hearing this made Malak’s heart drop. He had no idea that Revan had gone this far into the Dark Side. He was now putting his own mortality before anything, and it terrified Malak to his very core.

‘‘Where are you from?’’ Malak asked. Atton sighed, tears beginning to cloud his eyes. ‘‘Alderaan. I was from House Rand…        My entire family was slaughtered by the Empire. And I was stolen, and raised in the worst place possible.’’ If Malak still had an actual mouth, his expression would be that of sorrow. He had overseen the attack on Alderaan years ago against Republic forces, and now felt responsible for Atton’s suffering.

‘‘What if I told you everything you said about Revan and what he thinks of you is true?’’ Malak asked, making the tears in Atton’s eyes fall down his cheeks. ‘‘Don’t pretend to know what he and his followers have done to me, you false Sith!’’ Atton exclaimed, marching over towards Malak, who remained calm. ‘‘Revan only wants you as his Apprentice until his immortality is guaranteed. Once that happens, you will be no more…        Unless you help me escape.’’ Malak said, glancing at Atton’s Lightsaber hanging off his belt.

Atton glared at Malak. ‘‘Really? And what is one good reason why I should help someone who is a disgrace to the Sith???’’ If Malak had an actual mouth, he would have been smiling. ‘‘I know the kind of pain you feel, Atton. I’ve lived it once before, back when the Republic was still here and the Mandalorians were invading much of this galaxy. You free me from my chains, and I will free you from yours….       Do you want to be at peace, or not?’’

Thanks for reading! As always, thanks to DF for everything that he has done with this fanfic over the past year. This project would not have been possible without him. Leave a like, comment, and follow so you never miss an upload. Have a great day ✌️