Sith Gothic 19.

Temple. The Forgotten World.

Things had not gone as I had imagined, and I'd pictured this moment a lot since becoming Malak's apprentice, and also before.

Not that I'd really been under Malak's control, the prideful fool had simply assumed he'd broken me with his torture. It was amusing to think that the idiot believed that I'd fallen to the Dark Side, that he had freed me from the control of the Jedi.

I'd never stopped being a Sith. It was just that I was a Sith who could see the big picture. I wanted what was best for me, and Malak ruling the galaxy wasn't good for anyone.

"It's over, Gothic" declared the old man "Surrender to the Jedi Order, and I won't have to fight you".

I could see Jolee Bindo, firmly gripping his lightsaber with both hands as he prepared to fight me. I was also able to see Juhani's lips tighten as she pointed the tip of her green bladed lightsaber at Bastila.

This was the part I'd never seen in any vision, this was not something that should have happened. Revan was dead. I'd killed her. I shouldn't have been able to do that, yet there she lay on the stone.

"No, it is NOT over!" Bastila shouted angrily, while glaring at the ageing Jedi standing before her "Forget the Jedi Order. They lie about the Dark Side, yet manipulate their followers. They fear the Dark Side, and use it as a tool to control..."

I droned out whatever it was Bastila was droning on about. She'd made an unexpected life choice, betraying Revan for me it seemed. Selfish, but understandable given that it was my child growing inside her. Judging by the words I had bothered to listen to it sounded as if she'd chosen to join to the Dark Side on her own, perhaps something had happened on Korriban.

"They only needed me because of my Battle Meditation" the now fallen Jedi was saying as her rant started to come to an end "A weapon they could control".

As for me I was concerned about the fact that Revan was suppose to play a vital role in the down fall of the Sith Emperor, the leader of the Sith Empire currently building up its strength in the Unknown Regions. But she was dead so she couldn't do that, which meant I might have to do it. That was not a prospect which filled me with joy.

The conclusion to my thoughts was most likely something similar to what Revan herself must have come to when deciding to turn on the Republic. She may have decided to conquer the Republic, and to create a dark empire capable of destroying the True Sith Empire. Fighting fire with fire as it were.

I couldn't take on the Emperor and that guys long term goal was to nom nom nom on the galaxy, so he could become a god. If I started another war that might aid the Emperor in his plan.

Really it would have been better if Bastila had just let Raven kill me as I wanted her too. Being the apprentice of Malak had been enough to make me want to jump out of an airlock. Sadly I'd been too much of a coward for that.

I'd considered running, but Malak would have chased after me or at least sent Dark Jedi to kill me. They seemed to be very good at tracking people down, even if they kinda sucked at the killing part. Still by myself I didn't want to face a squad of Dark Jedi.

"You're wrong, Bastila!" Jolee debated, before going on to say more things I didn't care about.

I ignored that as I didn't really have a choice now. I had to conquer the galaxy myself in order to save it. Which sounded rather daunting, sadly I couldn't take the Emperor on directly I'd need my own Sith Empire.

My other choice was to trust in the Force, run away, and let things work themselves out. Hoping that someone else would stop Malak, but if they didn't then the rest of the galaxy would be easy for the True Sith to conquer as there was no way the current Dark Lord could build a proper empire. He was an idiot in so many ways, sure he was powerful, but he was also petty and kinda crazy.

Granted I wasn't exactly qualified for the job myself as I'd never even tried to run an empire, although I couldn't imagine I'd be worse at than Malak, whose idea of ruling was kill people for failures of others, and sometimes just being nearby when he got mad. Which was often.

"Shut up old man!" Bastila retorted icily, leering at the old Jedi.

This was when someone addressed me.

"You have far more power than I thought possible" Bastila was saying to me "You killed Revan".

That I had done. Somehow.

"You, and only you, deserve to reign as the true Dark Lord of the Sith! Join with me, and claim your rightful place!" she then said.

Become the Dark Lord, well that was a step towards Galactic Domination. However my thinking was that this path would just led to me being the next Malak, that I'd screw everything up and leave the Republic unable to defend itself. However as things were the galaxy would fall anyway.

"Claim my rightful place?" I mumbled.

The idea did have some attraction, but that could just be the insanity kicking in. Dark Lords tended to suffer from madness.

"I will never deny my passion again, Gothic." Bastila promised "I would gladly stand by your side as your apprentice, and as your lover. I would much rather serve you, than the Jedi".

That last part I could well believe. It was just the lover/apprentice thing I wasn't so sure about. Was I powerful and wise enough to take any apprentice, never mind an already trained Jedi.

"No, listen to me! The Dark Side leads only to death and destruction!" Jolee warned me "I've seen the horrors the Sith can unleash; turn away from this path! Even if it costs me my life, I cannot allow you to make this mistake".

The time had come to make a choice. Take Bastila's offer, and destroy Malak, claiming his dark throne; or side with my so called Jedi allies.

Then a sudden chill filled the air, and an oppressive, dark weight pressed on me right up until I made my choice. When that happened the weight lifted and I knew I was committed to one course of action.

Author Note

I know its been more than a year since I updated this story. I admit I was stuck. Now I've decided to skip ahead a bit and see if anyone will pledge for me to carry on this tale.

There's pretty much only three ways the story could go from here. Sith Gothic can take Revan's place and save the galaxy, or he can take Malak's place, after killing him, and conquer it. The third is to run away and so something else.

I'm going to let whoever pledges for this story to decide as I really can't. The amount can be decided by the one doing the pledge, if he chooses to do what LSR would then the story can end in a couple of chapters so I wouldn't expect much for that. However a story involving conquering the galaxy would be a lot more work. As for the running away that could led to sequel set well into the future, after all he knows how to greatly extend his life.

So what do you want? For him to try conquer the galaxy, save it, or should he run like hell and hope that Malak won't be able to come after him because the Starforge falls into the sun with him still inside.

Revan doesn't have to be dead, she could still be alive its not like anyone checked her pulse to be sure. And its not totally silly that she could come back from the dead either.

Because he's Malak's apprentice, if he kills Malak then its all his. The fleet, the armies, everything. He can take that fleet and secure his own empire without conquering the rest of the republic. He could even sue for peace, hold on to the outer rim and fortify it, and that would give the True Sith two groups to worry about.