Interlude VI. 7925.721 to 7944.361 CRC
Interlude VI. 7925.721 to 7944.361 CRC
She had nearly killed her mother in childbirth, in the slums of Nar Shaddaa, and the woman had never let her forget it.
By the time she was six years old, the little girl, who was growing up as a street rat, knew how to pickpocket to feed herself, as her mother often didn't bother with it, and had killed her first man, to protect herself. It wasn’t the first time she had to defend herself – though it was the first time she did manage to win against the taller, more dangerous opponent.
She was found by an old woman in dark clothes, an old Jedi master who never gave any love to the young girl, and was particularly harsh on her every-time any of her violent tendencies surfaced.
At six-year-old, the little girl became a Jedi initiate, but never really managed to make her place among them.
The children nicknamed her “Nashtah”, like the six-legged Dravian predator, for her innate talent in any form of fighting and deadly instincts.
At nine-year-old, new padawan Aurra Sing followed her master on her first mission, in the Hutt sector. Falling into a trap, she was then sold into slavery. But the little girl was savvy, and didn’t need the Force to fight.
She killed the Hutt who bought her, and started to run. But didn’t manage to get very far before she was caught again, by a man with the same chalky-white skin as her, thin limbs and elongated fingers made for bloodshed.
“A mongrel, but skilled enough to survive.” the man had mused with undisguised disdain, but also some measure of interest, “Who knows. You may yet prove useful for our people.”
¤.¤.¤
Their people, Nashtah realized, were the Anzati, a specie of long-lived near-human whose favorite mean of sustenance was eating other sentient species’ grey matters.
They didn’t need it to live – they simply enjoyed it, so much that some Anzati eventually lost themselves in the thrill of the hunt, becoming mad and addicted.
The Anzati were highly xenophobic, without much surprise for a specie that fed on other thinking beings, and rarely interacted with the rest of the galaxy. The only exception being those who headed out to hunt for fun; and those that were sent out in the galaxy to ensure the hunters didn’t agitate too much the rest of the galaxy, in order to preserve their people’s way of life without interference.
Naturally, for such racist people, the mere idea of a half-breed like Aurra Sing was a heresy.
If she’d thought life was hard in the slums of Nar Shaddaa, or that master Kuro’s training had been hard, neither had anything on the merciless training of the Anzati Assassins Academy.
Despite all the Jedi had taught her, Aurra hated it.
Hated the Anzati that looked down on her for her human mother.
Hated her mother who’d decided that having some good time with a psycho brain-eating vampire was a good idea.
Hated the Jedi, who’d abandoned her into slavery.
Hated those bastard slavers, who thought they trade her like a droid.
Hated with all she had, the Academy’s trainers that were several times harsher with her than with the other students.
Hated those students, who looked down on her for her blood, yet didn’t have a speck of her talent.
Hated herself, for still somehow hoping someone would come and save her.
¤.¤.¤
And then her savior had arrived.
Old, and with a breathing apparatus on his face like he was, the Muun still exuded an aura of danger that made even the Academy’s trainer pause. Though, she’ noticed with some disdain, that none of the students had been smart enough to realize that much.
There had been a commotion – small at first, but that had quickly become a full out fight.
The half-blood assassin in training hadn’t wasted her time choosing the winning side. Seeing the red blade of the man’s lightsaber didn’t even make the former padawan pause – it had been a long time since she’d been abandoned by the Light Side, after all.
By the end of it, the Assassin Academy was a smoking ruin, and Aurra Sing had a new master.
Darth Plagueis, she felt, may well be the first master who didn’t try to take advantage of her, but only to help, no matter how strange it was, coming from a Sith.
He’d taken the time to deactivate the control ship hidden in the bio-implant the Anzati had put in her brain. Had explained to her why she’d never really managed to fit among the Jedi, as her instinct were just in complete opposite with their doctrine of control over their emotions.
Yet surprisingly – he’d also revealed the Hutts and Anzati’s lies, telling her that she hadn’t been abandoned by the Jedi.
No, it had been a trick from the young Twi’lek who’d sold her. And while it was true that master Kuro hadn’t even mentioned her disappearance, thinking she’d run away, the rest of the Jedi hadn’t taken her kidnapping quite so calmly. The dark woman who’d trained her had been formally censored, sent to mind healing, and forbidden from taking a new padawan for the next decade — which, while it didn't make things batter all of a sudden, did soothe something in the young girl's mind.
Nashtah was twelve years old, when she was adopted by a Sith master.
¤.¤.¤
Plagueis had become more than a master, or a mentor to Aurra Sing – he was a father.
He taught her all he knew, not only about the Banite Sith, and the Great Plan a millennium in the making, which truth be told, he’d been losing interest in for years, but also everything else.
She was given regular schooling, martial training, and even art lessons, but also access to a whole library about the Sith of old, and even, rather unexpectedly, about the Jedi.
The old Muun also took care never to let her near his other apprentice. The one who was still intent on the Great Plan, whose aura felt cold and slippery, and who, they both knew, was already plotting Plagueis’ demise like a true Banite Sith.
Not that he would manage, of course – after all, Plagueis had Aurra to watch his back.
She had been a bit put upon, at first, when the old Sith had set up a civilian identity for her, that had strictly nothing to do with him.
“Ah, but little Nashtah,” he’d said fondly, “You can’t have anything to do with Hego Damask. My other apprentice would sniff you out, and we can’t have that, can we?”
So instead, Aurra had dived into her biology studies, brilliantly graduating from the University of Reena, and going right by her mentor’s side.
Since she still needed some sort of outlet, they spent quite some time sparring, or hunting the exotic creatures of Sojourn, but it was rather evident that what Plagueis truly enjoyed were the mysteries of the Force.
With the balance of the Force changing more and more, Plagueis was starting to get worried, as he doubted the Jedi, should they discover their survival, and the machinations they'd made against them, would spare the Banite Sith.
He sunk deeper into dangerous research, and somehow, Aurra couldn’t help but fell like each time he met with his other apprentice, he would indulge in more dangerous and disturbing experimentation.
The first beasts he’d manage to recreate were dangerous, and clearly of the Dark Side – but they were just that. Beasts. But after that, the experimentation grew more esoteric, and the beats became creatures, monsters who felt darker, dangerous in a way Aurra truly didn't feel comfortable with.
Of course, Plagueis had noticed too, but by then, something had started to encroach on the man’s mind – and he knew it.
“It’s too late for me, little Nashtah.” he told her when she all but begged him to stop, “The madness has settled, and I fear that only death will save me now.”
The worse was, she knew he was right – and yet, she still raged, cried and argued as he sent her away. Away from Sojourn, its dangerous creatures, and the darker than Dark madness that had infected her father figure.
¤.¤.¤
She hadn’t been surprised, when she received the holo-recording of his will – she had felt the moment it had happened, after all.
Hego Damask had set her for life. She had a diploma from one of the best universities in the Core, money, a luxurious starship with state-of-the-art technologies, that she’d been gifted when she graduated, and a few homes around the galaxy, all of them maintained by droids.
Her master had also left with her the research he hadn’t wanted in the hands of his other apprentice, trusting her to destroy what needed to be destroyed, and keep the rest for herself. To make a new way for her, away from the failing line of the Banite Sith.
Aurra Sing hadn’t been able to destroy anything.
Because when she entered the hidden laboratory, and saw the cloning cylinders, and the army of unnatural creatures, all that she could see, suddenly, was a way to avenge her father’s death.
She would destroy all that Dasha Ellan cared about, and only then kill her.
She would kill Sidious, for having dared to plot against Plagueis.
And she would make all the galaxy feel the same kind of agony she’d felt, ever since the Muun’s death.
7925.721 CRC – birth of Aurra Sing (51BBY / 3604ATC)
7931.344CRC – Aurra Sing becomes an initiate (45BBY / 3610ATC)
7934.652CRC – Aurra Sing enters the Anzati Assassin Academy (42BBY / 3613ATC)
7937.215CRC – Aurra Sing becomes Darth Plagueis’ apprentice (39BBY / 3616ATC)
7942.332CRC – Aurra Sing graduates from Reena (34BBY / 3621ATC)
7944.361CRC – death of Darth Plagueis (32BBY / 3623ATC)