I AM A SERN

The days passed by rather quietly and slowly, even for the taste of the Sith Lord named Sern. Like her predecessor, Leena could feel the weight of expectations and power from those below her and those on the seat of power. A weapon for her Master to control.

Regardless of the caution towards her own Master, she knew one way or another that Baras would do anything to find fault against her. He would turn every single stone just to find a reason to torture her or tame her as the Dark Lords of the Dark Council would say. They said taming or killing a Sern would be impossible – the galaxy believes that they were corrected as they see Zylas Sern's oldest girl be at the whims of her Master.

If Serns can be wounded, they can be killed. It wasn't so surprising. Anyone can be killed in a dangerous galaxy where the Sith and the Jedi play this deadly dance of souls.

When the doors of Baras's chambers opened, the Sith Lord could feel the sly smirk behind that mask of his. She proved her worth and her power, and yet she was very much aware of how dangerous she was slowly becoming. And like those she killed for his attention, there would come a time that he too – would slaughter her for assurance. She would become a loose end, and Baras never leaves loose ends.

Leena bowed in the presence of her Lord and Master. "Ah, the latest Lord in the Empire's arsenal returns. You're just in time. I have need of you."

"Whatever you decree, my Lord, I shall obey."

"My Master on the Dark Council, Darth Vengean, wants war. Not petty skirmishes that tiptoe around the Treaty of Coruscant, but open warfare." From the tone of his voice, even if the Darth wasn't Baras's Master – Leena knew he had some sort of agenda in mind. Something to elevate himself in the steps of power. Men like him always want something. "Vengean has tasked me with finding a way to compel the rest of the Council to tear up the treaty."

"Does the task give you pause, Master?" Lord Sern asked in a respectful tone.

"The Emperor signed the treaty for a reason, but no, apprentice. I see it as a great opportunity." Baras has his hopes up on this task for her. "I believe I have found a way to move the Dark Council and the Emperor happily towards war. Most think that our inability to find and defeat one man – General Karastance Gonn – kept us from outright victory and forced the negotiated peace."

"I have never heard of Karastace Gonn."

"Yes." The Master nodded. "Even as the Republic writes songs about him, we would just as soon forget he exists. General Gonn operates from the shadows, a phantom single-handedly preventing the fringe systems from falling to us. After years without a hint of his whereabouts. I've learned that he's meeting on Nar Shaddaa with traitorous Imperial agents. You will go there, and you will kill him."

"And what is this meeting about?" Traitors at times like this have proven to be normal. Spies scattered everywhere, circling around the treaty. Zylas was right, the war would eventually come and Leena had to prepare for the worse to come.

"He maintains the fringe systems by anticipating our moves. These traitors supply his information. Anyone meeting with General Gonn is guilty of treason and must be eradicated. We will not appear weak on this."

"I will punish all who are aligned with him."

"Without Gonn, the fringe systems will fall. Control of the outlying planets will be a great advantage." But before Baras could even dismiss his own apprentice, he reached his hand out and proceeded to receive a familiar-looking Holocron slowly land on his palm.

Leena's corrupted eyes widen in shock. "Now, apprentice. I would like to know why you have your mother's Holocron on your ship."

"Should that even be a question, my Lord? It is mine now, by right – as her oldest living child." She spoke truth into those words. She could sense her Master's feeling of frustration and even the anger – he hated her mother, Baras never denied her that.

"I told you that your mother would be your downfall." Baras continued as he gently placed the Holocron on this table, with his hands gently folded behind him – the presence of his apprentice, he slowly felt disgusted towards her. She was becoming more like Zylas as time continues on. "I specifically told you to obey."

"And I do obey." Baras turned around to find those eyes starring right at him. "I think you are forgetting, my Lord, I have done everything you've asked me and performed the tasks where your other apprentices and acolytes failed."

"And don't you know that I could bring you down as quickly as I raised you?" She became different, compared to the last time he saw her face to face. The Sith Lord never once answered back, nor raised her voice towards him – her off-world exploits have changed her. For him, it was for the worse. For her, it was for the better. "Remember your place in this galaxy, Sern – do I have to remind you what the galaxy is?"

"It's the trillions of souls that were lost in conflicts like this, Master. A story we agreed to tell each other over, and over until we forget that this has become our way of life." The galaxy breaks them. Her skin turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel.

"And you should remember how you got there."

Leena looked at her Master with yes filled with flames. She had this strength of determination and boldness that never he once witnessed when she was young and naïve. "I know how I got there. And it is not all you. It was not all you, Arrun, Occlus or any other Sith you can even name – it was also me. I climbed into the steps of power myself, I killed those who were about to kill me, I earned the recognition you gave me."

There, Baras realized that this was not the little girl he broke or tamed. She's not that girl anymore. Not after what she has seen. Not after what he did to her.

She did what she had to do to survive, and in this case, Baras finally knew that the pawn has become a player in the game. She's a Sern and she will always be a Sern.

Baras has undoubtedly, miscalculated.

She didn't even dare to look away. She was taunting her Master. Leena understood that no one can protect her anymore.

That was her mistake. She believed that her father would protect her in the absence of her mother. She believed that Tremel would – eventually, she hoped that Arrun would or even Occlus. But she was wrong. She learned it the hard way – the Overseer was right. She has to be prepared for Baras – she has to always take him seriously.

She's been running all her life. Terrible things happened to her loved one and she weeps. Sitting in a dark, cold room from the moment Baras laid his eyes on her. Mourning the fates of those who tried to protect her and make her strong – she stopped running.

She had it. The raw and untamed power that he has been looking for. Perhaps she can be as frightening as her mother, or worse – even more powerful.

And it was frightening.

Baras raised his hand, having lighting out of his fingertips aiming directly towards his apprentice who crossed the line. Screams of the Sith Lord would echo through her Master's chambers – the pain reminded her which one of them is the Master and the other, the lower being. To think that she had endured tortures like this for years and did not do anything – she pretends to be a dutiful apprentice and yet even Baras knew that one day she would surpass him, and eventually murder him.

The dark side is no trick. When she is released from the control her Master drilled into her, when she feels anger in her every connection to the Force, when she accepts that a person with authority must use any means necessary to achieve her ends – then she would have completely discovered the dark side.

"Remember your place, Sern," Baras warned. On her knees, taking deep breaths – the Sith Lord looked up to see her Master looking down on her like a common animal. "Without me, you are nothing."

The Jedi Master Cyrus constantly tried to connect with her through the Force and eventually, he did. He found the newly named Sith Lord by a cave of some sort, alone and yet he could feel the conflicting thoughts inside of her. "You seemed troubled, Sith."

"Perhaps I am." Leena sighed, as she opened her eyes. Looking beyond the entrance of the cave to see the rain pouring harder by the minute. The Dromand Kaas weather has always not been kind, nor was fate. "I came here often when I was a little girl, wondering if I could go somewhere else. Back then, I only thought about what I wanted and ever what I had. I'm done with all of that."

"Something tells me that you have changed somehow. You have different… the aura around you compared to all of the screams I've heard and all of the pain I've felt through you." Cyrus seemed to be concern about the Sith. He felt that he needed to understand her.

"That was a long time ago, Jedi. I've been through much worse compared to the glimpse you heard or felt."

"Perhaps." Their bond through the Force continued to grow stronger. Despite the warning of his Masters, the Jedi proceeded anyway. "I heard that your Sith Masters are not kind to their apprentices. How the dark side can destroy a person. None of this would have happened if the Jedi found you as well. No Darth Baras. No pain. No torture. None of it."

"Without Baras, the pain or the rest – I would have stayed someone fragile all my life." To understand a person's motives, she needs to play the game. Assuming the worst. She knows Baras still needs her and she's now in hot water with her Master – but once he's done with her, that's where the real game starts. "I'm a Sern and I will always be a Sern."

"Do you have someone, Sith? A family to go home to? A husband, children?"

"I have a family. Though they don't get along often – they're my family now."

"I can assume that you prefer your companions during your off-world exploits." Cyrus couldn't express what he felt towards the Sith. He felt somewhat, a sense of relief – happiness for her. A Sith he never once met other than dreams and visions. "Forgive me, Leena. I might stop my contact with you for some time. My Masters cannot know that we're in touch, not even my brother."

"You have a brother?"

"Yes." He chuckled in delight by the mere mention of him. "He has been aware that… On occasions, I would be in accidental contact with you. He advised me to keep my distance but the Force keeps on connecting us. Perhaps, if the Force wills it, we will one day meet on the battlefield."

"Perhaps that is a merciful outcome – due to our current situation." Leena agreed. Even when she too, felt their bond growing stronger – they had to stop in the name of their Orders.

"Farewell, Leena. May the Force be with you."

"To you as well, Cyrus." They're both human. Doing their duty where there is no cause to it. The honor comes easy. Arrun was correct when he said that the Force had plans for her. Things would only get harder once she starts her off-world exploits again.

Now with an apprentice, she always tried to do the right thing. She wanted to protect people. As Tarun said, he will not tell her to go and fulfill her path to vengeance or not. To stay or go will always be her choice, a choice she has to make for herself and live with it for the rest of her day.

Back then it was just the two of them, her and Arrun right in this cave – within somewhere of this jungle talking about the Force, the history of the galaxy, its philosophies. Now those simple memories are nothing more than just memories, stuck in her mind – replaying whenever she pleases like a holorecording. Thinking of things that should have been if he was still alive.

She would have had a husband to go home to. Children to expect, watch, raise, and train. Haunted by a nightmare that what could have been if things happened differently. She didn't choose this life and yet she's still living in it.

She's not looking for happiness anymore.

Somethings just stay broken.

That evening the Sith Lord returned to her stronghold. She couldn't help but sigh as she saw Vette sleeping on the couch again. Of all the years they've been together, the Twi'lek companion could have at least wanted to sleep in the room that Leena provided for her.

Leena proceeded with the usual routine, carrying her friend with the Force and gently tucking her in the bed. Oddly enough, Vette should be a bit older than the Sith and yet, it was the opposite. Thinking about it, they've been through so much from Korriban to where they were now.

What she did back in Baras's chambers was considered suicide already. She knew that he would try something to punish her but at the same time, he needed his apprentice to be complete concentration on the mission at hand.

The Sith Lord proceeded to the living room to find her Captain standing there quietly. He bowed, watching his Lord sit down on the couch. "Thank you for doing my little errand, Captain. Are you sure that Baras hasn't suspected a thing?"

"My Lord, I can assure you, Lord Baras is rather distracted at the moment. Though, if I may ask, why would you allow Baras to have something so – valuable?" As much as Quinn stood loyal to his new Lord, he was confused about what she wanted as a result out of this.

"I need to know what he prizes more – me being tamed or the success of the mission at hand. For the time being, we follow orders. But soon, we set our sights on the master."

The Captain nodded. "If my talents can be of help, I hope you will utilize them."

"I hope so as well, captain." Leena acknowledged his statement as her gaze went to the hologram by the shelf. The image of her husband standing there – a man who she can never see again. "Make sure we have all the preparations for this mission – we'll be leaving for Nar Shaddaa tomorrow, Quinn."

"Very good, my Lord."