Rey's Journey

 The caverns were pitch black, yet somehow seemed to give off a dark light of their own. There was equally no wind, as Rey was many miles from the surface, however she still felt like she could hear a whisper that sounded very much like the wind. 

She had been here so long she started to wonder if the Tusken Jedi had given her the wrong directions. It would have made sense, since how could someone who spent their life raiding the Daimyos of Tattooine know about ancient sith secrets on a planet in the other side of the galaxy. Moriban. That was where she was now. Or more specifically, the caverns of Moriban. For the past five days she had trekked through the caverns looking for the ancient sith tomb, and she was starting to run low on supplies. If she didn't reach her destination soon she would have to turn back, else die here, like so many jedi and foolish scavengers had done so before her.  

She scrambled down from the small cliffside she was currently perched on and crawled under an opening that was barely big enough for her to fit through. Then she gasped. The sight before her was incredible. A large sith temple, carved from the black and oily rocks which made up the cavern. She was unsure exactly if she was seeing the temple or the feeling it through the force. It felt ominous, like so many other sith artifacts, but she had learned to accept that feeling. It was part of their natural defences. They didn't want to be disturbed. 

DT-17 beeped and whilstled, and flew under the surface Rey had just crawled through. He turned on his light and illuminated the tomb.

"That's where we're going." Rey said to the droid. 

Deetee gave a worried beep as Rey began to climb further down.

At the entrance to the tomb there was written something in the old sith language. Although to call it a sith language was a bit reductive. In her travels, Rey had found multiple different dialects of the sith language, far more than the singulat one was originally though to exist by the New Republic archeologists. Deetee was programmed with a translation software for the various sith languages she came across. The lawmakers back on Corusant would probably be frothing at the mouth given how many laws she was breaking, but she would like to see them follow her down here to stop her. Besides, a sith translation program was technically allowed if you were attending the Corusant University and following the archeology track, although Rey was not doing this. 

Deetee scanned the writing on the tomb entrance, making a copy of it as he went. When he had finished, his usually unintelligible beeps and whilstles were replaced with a deep toned voice, (a synthesised reconstruction of the ancient sith, except speaking in galactic basic) which said:

"Here lies the tomb of the Sith'arii, Dath Bane. Greatest duelist to ever live. Slayer of Sith."

It was written in a sith dialect which was much, much more modern than the others. Just about as old as the Republic itself, so only a few thousand years, which in comparison to the oldest sith writing on record, which was over fifty thousand years old, is modern. It was also written after the fall of the first sith order, and the writer had clearly tried to imitate the mannerisms of the ancient sith of the past, although there was a clear lack of craftsmandship. 

It was not obvious how the door opened, which was typical of ancient sith doors. There was always a trick to opening them. Rey ran her hand across the surface of the door. She felt a kind of heat, although it was almost more of an echo of heat. Having an idea of what to, Rey ignited her lightsaber, the yellow glow throwing the temple into an even deeper relief, and moved towards the start of the writing. Sith script was peculiar, and included and small symbol at the start of phrases. Finding the symbol, she also found it was much deeper than should be. She stuck her lightsaber into the hole and at once the whole temple groaned. 

She pulled her lightsaber out of the hole as a figure materialised behind her.  It was not a hologram of some kind, ready to interact with whoever activated it, but a specter. A writhing mass of dark side energy, protected by ancient sith armour. An ancient sith sword materialised in the figure's hand and charged her. 

She ran at it, leaping over the specter and swinging at it's head. The specter, completely unused to this kind of combat, had no defence and so it's head came swinging off it's shoulders, landing close to Deetee, who scampered away behind a rock in fear. 

The writhing mass of dark side energy flew out of the armour and into the wall as the armour around the specter disintegrated. The doors flew open and the braziers inside came to light with a dark red flame. 

The tomb, it turned out, was not originally a tomb. It appeared to have once been a training academy for sith, however those acolytes were long gone, although the stih artifacts remained. 

An armoury, filled with innumerable sith weapons.

A forge, with enough lighstaber parts for an army.

Sleeping quarters, which were so uncomfortable that the acolytes might have been better off sleeping on the floor outside. 

As they went around the rooms, Deetee scanned each room, both for traps and also so he could build a reconstruction of the tomb that might be viewed in a safer enviroment. He was very good at it. Every item, every speck of dust on the floor was scanned and catalogued into his databanks, for depositing into a larger, more central databank back at the ship. There was nothing immediately that Rey wanted to take with her, although her old scavenger instincts were kicking in and she started wondering how many rations she would get for some old electrical parts. 

That life was behind her now.

She went deeper into the tomb, into a burial chamber. These required a bit longer to scan, as Deetee also took genetic scans of the people inside the tombs. Each tomb had a small inscription, which said who was buried there. Lord Ajax. Lord Kysiss. Lord Baronmar. None of them were who Rey was looking for. Having finished his scans, Deetee happily whilstled and returned to Rey's side, who them left the burial chamber and into the very last room left. 

The central chamber was filled with sith holocrons. They lined the walls all the way up to the celiling, and the walls were meters in height. Deetee nearly exploded from excitement. He buzzed of to go and scan each of the holocrons, although Rey was drawn to one particular holocron. Sitting in the middle, resting on a pedestal, was a very special holocron. The object of Rey's search. 

It was most unusual, even amoungst holocrons which were, by their nature, unusual. For instance, whilst most holocrons took the form of simple geometric shapes, this one was a circular disk through which a small band was threaded. 

Rey picked it up, and draped it around her neck. At once a figure appareated before her. What appeared to be a smoking fire in the form of a humanoid was bound in the same kind of armour that the specter Rey had just beaten before wore. Except Rey knew this was no specter of the dark side. He was the ghostly reimbodiment of Darth Bane, one of the most powerful sith to ever exist. 

"Who are you?" He said, in a gravelly voice which made Rey's hair stand on end. 

"Rey Skywalker." She replied.

"A jedi?" He mused 

"No. The Jedi are long gone." 

"Then why are you here?" 

"I wish to reform the Jedi."

"And you want my help? Me, the most powerful of the Sith. Me, who created the rule of two so we could finally crush the Jedi?  You want me to help you reform them?" he wass shouting now, although Rey wouldn't budge in her position. 

"There are no Jedi or Sith left in the galaxy. They consumed each other. I wish to found a new order. One with both the teachings of the Sith and the Jedi, to help usher in a new, peaceful galaxy."

"Interesting." The ghost of Bane mused. "Interesting. There are none left at all you say? No Jedi or Sith."

"Luke Skywalker was the Last Jedi. Emperor Palpatine was the last Sith. Now both are gone, and only those force-sensitives which split off from both orders are left."

"Emperor, you say... How interesting." The ghost of Bane paced around Rey, examaning her. "And Skywalker... Your father?"

"No. I carry his name in honour of his memory. I am Palpatine's granddaughter."

Rey did not know scary ghosts of smoke could show shock, yet Bane manged.

"My. What a bloodline. You have a bit of both the Sith and the Jedi in you, don't you?"

"Yes."

After a bit more pacing, Bane stopped in front of Rey.

"Very well." He said. "Tell your droid to stop examaning the other holocrons. They contain the countless useless anecdotes of forgotten and failed warriors. They are worthless. I am all you need. I will train you in the arts of lightsaber combat, as only the greatest of the sith know. None was able to match me in a duel, and in time, none will be able to match you. I assume you have a lightsaber?"

In response, Rey ignited her blade and pointed it at Bane.

"Good." He said, and Rey was sure he grinned because the smoke darkened and the fire got more intense. "Pick up my lightsaber on the pedestal behind me, apprentice. Our lessons will begin now."

Deetee gave a happy beep, which Rey took to mean that he had scanned all the holocrons. 

"What does that infantile droid want now?" Asked Bane.

Rey didn't respond. Instead she stepped forward and grabbed the lightsaber from it's pedastel. It was curved and fit nicely in her hand. She flicked the switch. A heavy blade of rust-coloured plasma expanded from the hilt. Admiring the blade for a moment, Rey flicked the switch off and placed it on her belt. 

"What else of value is there in this tomb? We are not training here and I am not returning for a while."

If Bane was annoyed he didn't show it. Instead he gave off more of an amused smoke.

"Buried in the forge is an almost unique lightsaber crystal, a Qixoni crystal, forged in the heart of a supernova. It is incredibly powerful, and would be a great addition to the archives of your new order."

The crystal was not hard to find. Deetee's scans of the room revealed the secret compartment very quickly, much to Bane's amusement. The crystal inside was blood red, and when Rey held it in her hand it felt like a beating heart. Wondering if she hadn't just made a mistake, Rey placed the crystal in her pack and made her way out of the tomb. 

The journey up to the surface was much faster than the journey down, and this was partially due to Rey simply knowing where she was going. She had thrown navigation beacons down to map her route to the tomb, and fully intended to return there some day to claim the rest of the artifacts there, but that would require a more complex archaeological team and several large boxes. 

The journey still took several days, however, and Bane insisted that she start practicing the forms, so as a consequence she spent her time flipping and swinging her lightsaber around in a dark cave. It was probably pretty bad for her eyes. Bane kept trying to get her to use Deetee as target practice, and Rey kept refusing. 

Eventually she broke the surface, and the wave of natural light that washed over her was pleasing to the eyes. 

"Ugh. Sunlight." Commented Bane, entirely unhelpfully.