The darkest night of the Nightsisters (Tier 3)

As you come out of light speed and enter the orbit of Dathomir, Ranvi and you sense an unsettling emptiness and void coming from the surface of the planet. As you get closer, clouds of smoke rises from the direction of Ranvi's clans homeland. This can't be good. She rushes to the communication terminal to hail Mother Talzin's palace, but no answer comes. She looks at you with fear.

Ranvi: Could it... be that...?

Lana: Wait, don't just jump to conclusions yet! We don't know what happened here, let's land and see for ourselves!

She just sits back quietly and stares at the landscape as you land your ship next to Talzin's palace. Getting closer to the landing pad, you still don't sense her sisters, indicating what she fears most, yet, you can't bring yourself to tell her the truth, rather try to keep her last hopes intact. Upon landing nobody arrives to welcome you this time.

Lana (detaching your seat belt): Ranvi... I'll go down ahead and see if... Ranvi!

She rushes out of the cockpit before you could even finish. Running after her, you find her standing petrified on the ground under the engine. You look around and see what you both had been sensing for some time now. Corpses. Hundreds if not thousands of them, scattered around the area, laying in the mud, with way more destroyed droids in between them. Sidious wasn't deceiving you earlier, Ranvi truly sensed what was happening here. A full scaled Separatist invasion of her homeland and the genocide of her sisters. She doesn't say a thing, just stares in front of her. You can imagine what might be storming through her mind, having suspected it was one thing, but facing the truth like that is devastating for anyone. You don't break the silence either, just stand behind her, letting her process what has happened here. Suddenly, she collapses onto the ground and you rush to her.

Lana (holding her in your arms): Ranvi!

Ranvi (with teary eyes): Lana... I... I just can't bare this anymore... I might have partially lost Drek, especially without a spell to cure him... Now I've lost my Mother and my clan... This is just too much for me... I... I can't do this anymore...! I don't want to live like this!

Lana: Don't say things like that! You... you'll get through this, okay? You are a strong girl, the **** might send tremendous challenges at you, but these will only make you stronger! I know this won't make you feel any better, babbling about these things never helped anybody... I just want to let you know that I'm here for you. Whatever you need, I'll help you, alright? Let's get out of here to a calmer place!

Ranvi: Lana... It's... Thank you... But rather going to a calmer place, I would like to stab Sidious as many times as many sisters I have lost here!

Lana: You will have a chance for that, I sure, but now you must pull yourself together!

Ranvi: I'm the last of my kind... I can't believe it...

Lana: There must be other survivors too! Maybe some of them were offworld or...

Ranvi: We don't go offworld, only for very special reasons. I was the only one allowed to leave Dathomir for a longer time. Not to mention, had anybody been offworld, they would have felt the massacre just as I did and would have rushed here to meet heir demise.

Lana: I see... But don't give up hope yet!

Ranvi: I just... Wait, do you sense it...?

Lana (looking around): Ehm, no, what?

Ranvi (getting on her feet): One of my sisters! She's alive! She's here in the palace, come!

She runs to Talzin's palace with you closely behind her. She pushes some of the rubble aside and you spot Merrin under a marble table. She checks her pulse and she's alive, not wounded, just ****. Must be due to the ceiling collapsing onto her. Ranvi gets her free and hugs her closely.

Ranvi: Thank the **** you are alive Merrin!

Lana: The Separatists must have thought her to be dead or simply didn't notice her hiding in the building when they bombed it. Quite a miracle she survived!

Ranvi (lifting her onto her shoulders): It is! Oh I'm so happy now! Come, I'm taking her back to the ship and to the temple to be healed! We should search for more survivors!

Lana: Ranvi... I don't think it's a good idea to bring her back to the Jedi Temple...

Ranvi: What? Why? She needs help!

Lana: I don't think she's hurt, but we could run a medscan and inject some bacta into her veins, if you want to be certain. But I do not think the Jedi would welcome her...

Ranvi: They welcomed me just as they would welcome her too!

Lana: I know you want to help her, but this might not be the way. You were a youngling, so you could be trained properly. She's too old for training, not to mention she had been living with your clan and might have practiced your magic... And...

Ranvi: And...?

Lana: Do you think the council would let her live in the temple? Honestly.

Ranvi: We could figure it out, she might just live on Coruscant, I could get her an apartment, she would be safe there!

Lana: Why would Sidious kill all your sisters? To conquer Dathomir? I don't see any occupying forces here. I think there's more to it. I'm afraid if we take her with us, he might learn of her survival and we would only endanger her.

Ranvi (angrily): So what do you propose, we should just leve her here?! Alone?!

Lana: If I were Sidious, I wouldn't be looking for a Nightsister here, since they were all killed. We have met him, you have felt his power, if he's coming after us for some reason, we are all done for. We have seen his reach, he might even be able to get intel from the Jedi Temple too. We shouldn't risk it!

Ranvi: Well, she's my sister and I'm certainly not going to leave her here like this!

Lana: Okay, let me say it in other words. We won't abandon her here for good! Only until we find and eliminate Sidious! The war is coming to an end, he can't be hiding for long now. It might be a few weeks, months, then, we'll come back for her and take her to Coruscant or some place nicer.

Ranvi: I don't know...

Lana: It's for her well being Ranvi. We can leave here food for her, if she's just third as resourceful as you were at her age, she will be alright.

Ranvi (carefully putting Merrin back onto the floor): I can't believe you are talking me into this... To leave her behind... Alone...

Lana: This is going to be for her, we'll pick her up in no time and everything will be fine.

Ranvi: I'll leave Mother Talzin's spell book here for her. She's going to be bored, she could at least learn new spells from it. And I have one condition! I'll be coming back weekly to check on her!

Lana: Do you think that's a good idea? You might be the one bringing attention to her.

Ranvi: Blast it, how could I leave a child here just like that?!

Lana (your communicator beeping): I know it sucks, but... Hey, I'm picking up something on my communicator. Coordinates. It's coming from nearby. Let's go and see, maybe more survivors!

Ranvi: I hope so!

You go to the coordinates with haste, it's at the other wing of the palace, and find an active holoterminal with a message. After activating it you see Silri's holographic message.

Silri: Sister, if you are seeing this, then you too have survived the onslaughts of the droid army. Very few of us were so lucky... Our Mother, Talzin and the other elders are dead. All of them. I looked for the other clans in the neighboring mountains, but I found they met the same end like our clan. The Nightbrothers survived underground, but since we were decimated and weakened, they now refuse to follow our orders. The ungrateful little brats! I have found a handful of surviving sisters, whom I'm taking with myself. As the strongest of the survivors, I'm taking the role of a new Mother. I'm setting out to find our ancient homeworld, Peridea, an extragalactic planet. As our legends go, some of our sisters are still living there, they might help us recover from this devastating defeat. I have no knowledge about how to travel there yet, just to follow the Purrgil and that there used to exist an ancient starmap, showing us the way. I am positive I will find it. Some has always doubted the truth of these legends, but I have certainly not. If you are with me, come after me to Csilla to these coordinates, that planet is in the unknown regions, a safe place to resettle what's left of our people. If you don't believe in my cause, so be it, I wish you luck with surviving nonetheless.

Ranvi: Wow, the bodies aren't even cold yet, but she'l already proclaiming herself the new Mother! That's outrageous! But at least some of my sisters really survived, that's good enough for me.

Lana: Interesting. She picked Csilla as the new location? That's certainly far far away from here. Not to mention the inhabitant, the Chiss don't like outsiders at all! What is she going to do about that?

Ranvi: I don't have a clue what she has in mind, she has always been unpredictable. However, with Mother Talzin gone, Silri might be the only one who can help us cure Drek.

Lana: How so?

Ranvi: Despite having her bothersome personality, she is, or was, a sort of archaeologist in our tribe. She had always been keen to learn about our legends and often kept searching for artifacts long thought to be lost. Her current quest to find Peridea sounds just as crazy, but who knows, maybe she'll succeed. During her searches, she often encountered magic techniques our elders prohibited. If there's anyone who knows a spell to help us, it's her. We have to find her!

Lana: Hmm, I don't want to spoil your hope about this, but I don't remember her being on good terms with us, especially with me. Why would she help us?

Ranvi: We'll persuade her, one way or an other!

Lana: That's the kind of determination we needed! Okay girl, back to the ship, we're leaving for Csilla! It'll take a few days to even reach the place and I do hope you have packed some winter clothes, Csilla's climate is extremely cold, its temperature is somewhere between Ilum's and Hoth's.

Going back through the palace, you notice a Nightbrother's body. It outstandingly resembles Darth Maul. Ranvi notices it too, then runs to him.

Ranvi (examining him): Maul! He's still alive! Although barely! I don't think he's going to pull through...

Lana: Maul?! Is that really him?! What is he doing here? Was he behind the attack?!

Ranvi: No, he was helping us against Sidious!

Lana: Okay, you have totally lost me there!

Ranvi: Well, you aren't supposed to know about it... Mother Talzin forbade me of telling any Jedi about him.

Lana (angrily): Ranvi, I'm not just any Jedi, I'm your best friend for the ****'s sake! Now you'll either tell me what Darth Maul is doing here and why aren't we capturing or killing him right now, or you'll have to find a different pilot that takes you to Csilla or back to Coruscant!

Ranvi: Alright, listen. Talzin has always felt Maul was alive after his duel with Master Kenobi on Naboo. She just couldn't find him because he's spirit was broken and very weak. She sent out a couple of our sisters and brothers to look for him and one of them found him. Or, what was left of him... It was a terrible sight, you were off on a mission when it happened, Talzin asked me to be present when he's brought back here and "rebuilt".

Lana (frustrated): I get it... "rebuilt". You see, you don't just "rebuild" a Sith! If the council finds out about that...!

Ranvi: They won't! Right?

Lana (rolling your eyes): Right.

Ranvi: She restored his mind and cleansed it of all the dark corruption Sidious has poisoned it with. He was a completely new man, reborn.

Lana: I believe it when I see it!

Ranvi: That's exactly why the Jedi must not have known about him! They would have sent somebody to kill or capture him...

Lana: Naturally! He knows everything about Sidious, we could have used the intel! Had we known more about him, Valare might not have had to sacrifice herself for us! Do you understand what was at stakes by hiding this pivotal information?!

Ranvi: Yes, I am sorry, truly... But he wasn't ready to remember his past. His "rebuilding", had the side effects of temporarily clouding his older memories. He needed time to fully recover them.

Lana (sarcastically): Time, which he didn't get apparently...

Ranvi: Yes... Sidious must have felt his old apprentice's return and sent his army to silence him... Forever...

Lana: And they eradicated your family along the way, great! Do you understand how big of a mistake it was to bring him here?!

Ranvi: We had ****! He was one of us, we couldn't let him rot on that junkyard he was on...! That's why I didn't want to leave Merrin here either! This just isn't our way!

Maul (groaning): Arrrgh...

Ranvi: Maul!

Maul: Ranvi...? Where's Mother Talzin...? Is she alright...?

Lana: No, they were all killed by your old master! Happy?

Ranvi: Lana! Don't insult him!

Maul (with deep sadness): I see... Then... I have failed, once... again... Tell me... Is the... chosen one... still alive...?

Ranvi: The chosen one? You mean, Anakin Skywalker? Yes, he is, as far as I know.

Maul (with his dying breath): Good... He... will... avenge us.

Ranvi (closing Maul's eyes): Goodbye Maul, rest now, son of Dathomir.

Lana: Well, you know... I actually feel sorry for him. You might have been right, he might have changed. A Sith wouldn't have given his life for anybody.

Ranvi (laying him back on the floor): He has really changed, whether you believe it or not. He wasn't a Sith anymore, but my brother, even if we knew each other for a very short time. Okay, let's leave this place, Drek can't wait for us forever.

You get back onto the ship, Ranvi places her spell book next to Merrin, kisses her forehead, then goes after you to take off for a long journey.