Somewhere in the galaxy two Sith warriors sat together with their backs against one another. The space around them was barren and grey with rocks and boulders of various sizes strewn about in no particular order bit the scenery seemed very unnatural to the two women. Dotted along the landscape were a few dead looking trees. The younger of the two women squinted her eyes against a light that was not shining from any sun or moon, more puzzlement for her.

"This makes no sense… we've gone over this dozens of times and nothing fits to where we are."

The elder of the two stared off into the vast emptiness before her. The woman's shoulder length deep flame red hair was tucked behind her ears and her pale blue eyes were staring ahead at the desolate environment. She too had come up with just as many explanations than her companion had and they were all equally worthless in their current predicament.

"I'd just like to figure out how we went from being in the Throne room of Zakuul to being here without knowing."

"Trust me, Tara, I know."

Nathrrya Therin-Palatine stared out into the darkness in front of her as she felt the agitation radiating off of her unofficial apprentice. Tara, though, was more of a daughter to the woman, who was in her early forties. She didn't look her age and she held an agility and had an air of high status. She wore black and charcoal grey robes with gold embellishments and highlights which held the prominent crest of House Palatine, the most prestigious estate she would inherit from her parents.

The Sith have a thing about bloodlines, Nathrrya was no ordinary Sith and her bloodline was most unique. Her mother was a Palatine and thus had one of the finest and oldest bloodlines in the Empire and it could be traced back to the Sith genocide and great exodus which occurred over a thousand years prior. Her father, by comparison, was a Therin and his lineage was that of Jedi and just as old from the Republic standpoint.

K'natara Synge, affectionately called Tara by those who knew her well enough, was a younger woman in her early twenties. With deep ebony hair, piercing dark blue eyes and a fair complexion that looked almost ghostly white, she was beautiful when compared to the average woman and in her earlier years she used that for some unsavoury reasons. Eventually getting married, though at a relatively young age, seems to have settled her wild nature.

Tara's own lineage was interesting and unique in its own way. Her father, Captain Malavai Quinn, had a pre-started family unexpected with a junior naval officer when he was still coming through ranks at the Academy on Dromund Kaas. His first child, Jaena, grew up on the planet with her mother and eventually made it into the Academy as an agent for the Empire. She went on to be the best one they had. Quinn couldn't be more proud. But he made the mistake of being seduced by another Sith Lord while he was stationed on Balmorra. Without knowing, Tara had been conceived and born from the womb of one of the most volatile Sith that walked the galaxy at the time - Darth Nox.

Needless to say, Tara's childhood was rough and she was moved around from one person to the next. She was dropped off on Quinn when she was five until he couldn't handle her growing power with the Force. She ended up on the Sith homeworld of Korriban for training and barely made it to her fifteenth year. She hopped over to her mother's department on Dromund Kaas and from there somehow managed to end up pregnant and resigning from being Sith and picking up a quarterstaff as a Mandalorian. If anything, Tara's life was hectic and dramatic and rather unfortunate when brought into retrospect by the older woman.

"This isn't the first time we've shared a dreamscape," Tara mentioned offhandedly. "Could this be something induced? I remember getting hit by a Force wave but nothing after that."

"I truthfully can't say what happened," Nathrrya said. "But you're right about a dreamscape. I don't even recognize any of these star patterns."

"I do. From Ziost."

Nathrrya frowned when that place was mentioned. The planet Ziost was another reclaimed ancient Sith world for Empire. During the war it had grown to the point where it was beginning to overshadow the Sith Citadel on Dromund Kaas.

It was obliterated by Vitiate during the pursuit of the Sith Emperor by both Empire and Republic forces. Nathrrya and her cousin, Casavir, worked together with all of their allies and with the leadership of Grand Master Satele Shan of the Republic and Darth Marr of the Empire. Eventually Tara and some of her mandalorian comrades, her mother's sister Adannah - also a mando - and everyone Casavir knew were on deck and had formed a formidable army to track Vitiate down. Their efforts failed as he prepared to destroy Ziost and everything that was on it… including Tara's mother, Darth Nox.

The memory came back to Tara when she mentioned the stars. She watched the planet become consumed by Vitiate as he ate all of the life that the planet had to offer. Had it not been for her mother Tara, Nathrrya and all of their friends and allies would not have made it off the planet before it was consumed. The younger woman remembered, as much as she didn't want to remember, the pattern of stars that crossed over her eyes when she felt the wave of energy that coursed through the Force as the balance between life and death tipped ever so slightly. Feeling the death of a planet and millions of individual lives had a physical effect of the Force sensitives. Tara, in her still young age, was not in control of her abilities enough to withstand the impact…

She turned her mind away from the thought and back to her current surroundings. Off in the distance Tara saw something making its way slowly towards them from the infinite darkness of space. She stood in her place and tapped Nathrrya with the heel of her boot.

"Nat, check it out. Is that one of ours?"

Standing and brushing the dust from her robes she turned around to see what the younger woman was indicating and she stopped, her eyes squinting. The vessel that was coming towards them certainly looked like an Imperial Harrower-class dreadnought but it was much larger, better armed and had a distinctive towering superstructure that Harrowers lacked. As she took a step forward to try and get a better look she saw Tara sway on the corner of her vision. She turned to her friend.

"Woah, you okay?" Nathrrya reached out to grab Tara but her hand went right through the other woman, the way it would with a ghost. She looked down at her hand and then at her friend. "The kriff is going on?"

"Nat… I don't feel too good…" Tara felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. The stars seemed to jump out at her as she watched them. Nathrrya, by comparison, was beginning to feel the same way.

Before too long, both women had collapsed against one another on the dusty ground that was no longer there.

Year 3651 ATC

Darth Vader stood at his customary position near the front of the Devastator's bridge and gazed at the vast expanse of stars beyond the windows. It was one of the few things he still found soothing in any meaningful way as he recalled the vague memories of having done so as a boy on Tatooine. The irony was not lost on the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker.

His slight meditation was disrupted by the Force suddenly flaring up around him and, under his mask, Vader frowned as he tried to figure out what it meant. Within the churning waves of the unseen entity he felt the two strong and powerful Force signatures. He frowned - these weren't newborns and the signatures were strong and trained. In order to adequately describe the feeling, he would have to say that they just woke up from some kind of dormancy. If he had felt them, then surely the Emperor had as well.

With a toss of his long black cloak Darth Vader turned and stalked off the bridge and made his way to his quarters. He knew his master would contact him soon. Along the way, as he walked, his own apprentice had fallen into step beside him. Starkiller had been an open secret; while the ever present Rule of Two It was in effect, it didn't stop Darth Sidious from taking and training his secret Force sensitive assassin, Mara Jade. Much in the same way, Vader had taken the young man from Kashyyyk and trained him. Neither of the senior Sith masters spoke of their "secrets" - ever.

"I would assume that you sensed the disturbance, apprentice." Vader's deep mechanical voice was quiet and conversational as he addressed his apprentice.

"What could it mean master?" Starkiller asked. He kept his pace even with his Master's and gave him the proper respect. It wasn't the easiest thing, being the young and wild person he tended to be, but years of the constant, belligerent training finally sunk in.

The helmet and mask turned and looked down slightly. "I do not know. They could either be potential allies or potential enemies. Either way, the Emperor will likely order us to find out which and take the proper initiative."

The younger man just nodded in reply.

"What is thy bidding my master?" Vader asked as he knelt before the life sized hologram of the Emperor.

"Rise my friend." Sidious replied in a kindly manner and even went so far as to smile ever so slightly. Vader went on high alert seeing this, taking note that his master was in a much better mood than he normally showed. It was a sign of bad news to come for someone somewhere. But Sidious had other things - more important things - on his mind. "You felt them then?"

"It was difficult not to. It was sudden and dramatic, their…. Awakening."

The Emperor hummed thoughtfully in his own raspy way. "Indeed. It seems Grand Admiral Thrawn's forces in the Unknown Regions have discovered the remains of some form of carbonite storage facility. Thrawn is of the opinion it was actually a prison where the inmates were entombed in carbonite." He paused to allow Vader to take in the information before continuing. "Whatever the case, his men discovered two of the carbonite blocks still functional and those entombed within still alive. Impressive considering Thrawn estimates that the prison is between three and half to four thousand years old."

Something about the news he was getting proved to be elusive to the mind. To find carbonite is one thing, but to find living things encased within after that many eons was a farfetched fantasy for any scientific nut. Experimentation has proven that life support systems would need to be maintained for organic material to survive a stasis that long, and after five years there is significant damage to the nervous system that the subject would die shortly after thawing even with the best of medical attention. It was difficult to believe that two life forms could have survived that long being frozen and with no life support systems even in the vicinity.

"Then the shift in the Force was their release from the carbonite?" Vader asked.

Sidious nodded sagely. "Yes indeed, but it gets better Lord Vader - oh so much better. The two female specimens are both fully trained Sith. Thrawn believes them to be Master and Apprentice." The old man let out a devious cackle. "Go, Vader, to the Unknown Regions and retrieve these two Sith from the Chimaera and bring them before me. If the master refuses, kill her but I want the apprentice alive!"

"Very well," Vader said. "As you wish my Master." He bowed and the hologram of the Emperor faded from view. Starkiller walked over and stood beside his master, his hands behind his back as he stood erect and solemn.

"Are you really going to kill the master?" Starkiller asked.

The only sound for several moments was Vader's mechanical breathing. Starkiller knew it was wise to wait for a response, whether he got one or not, before he spoke again.

"No," the older man finally said. "I am not as short sighted as the Emperor." He turned to face his apprentice. "We do not yet have all of the facts." The masked man walked over to his desk and activated the comm unit. "Captain, locate the Chimaera and plot a course to rendezvous with her, maximum velocity!"

"At once Lord Vader!" the captain replied.

Less than a minute later the two force users felt the Star Destroyer make the jump to hyperspace.