“Get up!”
Ellac heard his father's voice shout above him as he spat the blood from his mouth onto the floor. Pushing himself to his knees, he felt the toe of a boot slam into his stomach, knocking him onto his stomach.
“I said get up!”
Ellac shot up in his bed, gasping and dripping with sweat. “Just a dream… It was just a dream,” he said, reassuring himself as he forcefully steadied his breathing. His room was quiet, with only electricity humming in the lightbulbs and the rhythmic ticking of the chronometer to add to the sound of his slowing breaths.
Pushing himself up from his bed, he walked over to the bathroom sink, splashing himself with cold water. His whole body was sore, aching all the way to his bones from the tension in his muscles, and the bag under his eye did little to hide the lack of sleep he’d been getting recently. But it wasn’t just his body. His mind was foggy too, muddled even. Off-balance due to the nightmares that showed no sign of stopping.
From the other room, the sound of his apartment door sliding open snapped him out of his wandering thoughts. His hands raised slightly in anticipation as he rounded the corner, meeting the familiar gaze of his master, standing just inside the door.
“Oh, it’s you,” Ellac said, letting his guard drop.
Sykes glanced around the room, sizing it up with his usual glare. “Cute place.”
“You could’ve told me you were coming,” Ellac scoffed.
Sykes took a few steps into the room, turning his glare on him. “I could also cut your tongue out and feed it to you if you’re not gonna keep it in check.”
The fatigue was doing very little to temper his growing intolerance of the conversation, but as much as he wanted to snap back, he could feel the irritation sapping away at his energy. “Whatever. You’re here now, so it doesn’t really matter. Besides, you didn’t come for a social visit,” he said, squinting doubtfully at his master. “Why are you here?”
Sykes reached down, imputing a command into one of his vambraces that opened a hidden compartment. In one swift motion, he raised his arm, releasing a toxin-filled dart that lodged itself right into the side of his apprentice’s neck.
“What the-” Ellac’s hand reflexively went to his neck where the dart had injected him. “What the hell are you doing?” His whole body began to numb as he stumbled backwards into the table by his bed, collapsing onto the floor. His mind began to fog, his vision blurring and his breaths became shallow as his consciousness slipped further and further away into what seemed like the beginning of another one of his nightmares. “No… No, frak, No!,” he tried to shout, but his mouth refused to move.
Sykes crouched down in front of his paralyzed pupil, slightly cocking his head as he looked into Ellac’s panicked eyes. Drinking in the fear that radiated in the Force around him, a small, malicious smirk spread across Sykes’ face. “Time for another lesson.”
•••
Ellac’s eye cracked open as the paralysis from the toxin began to subside. His cheek throbbed from laying facedown on the cold stone floor, and the earlier tension in his body had formed a knot in his shoulder. Ironically, he actually felt a little more rested after being unconscious for who knew how long. On the ground in front of him his laid his lightsaber, the only tool it seems Sykes was willing to leave him.
Clipping the weapon to his belt, his hand went up to the still-tender spot on his back where the dart had found its mark as he rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling above him. The room he found himself in was a dim space, barely bright enough to make out his surroundings as he pushed himself up off the ground. “Where am I?”
“Ellac…” A muffled voice echoed through the room, bouncing from wall to wall. It sounded like someone he recognized, but with the distortion, he couldn’t quite place who.
The hair stood tall on the back of his neck as Ellac quickly leaned forward onto his knees, his head on a swivel after what happened with Sykes. “Who’s there?”
Silence hung in the air as his own voice seemed to echo back at him.
“Stop hiding and show yourself!”
“Ellac,” The voice called out again, closer than it was before.
Ellac looked around again, but couldn’t see anyone else in the room, but it began to dawn on him that he knew this place… The furniture, the walls, the house itself was the very same as the one Ellac had spent his early childhood in. The same one that his parents died in. His heart began to race as he realized where he was standing. “Come on then!” he shouted out into the air, rising to his feet. “Come on!”
“Son.” The voice said, any distance or muffling it had now completely gone, and its echo had been silenced, speaking clearly to Ellac as if someone were standing right behind him.
Ellac froze where he stood at the voice in his ear. A lump formed in his throat as he recalled where he had heard the voice before. “No… You’re dead… You’re dead, I killed you,” he said, his chest heaving as he spoke.
“You are too weak to kill me. You have always been weak.” His father’s voice was almost hissing now as it spoke into Ellac’s ear. “Isn’t that right, boy?”
Ellac’s hand instinctively summoned his lightsaber, igniting it as he swung as hard as he could behind him. The blade cut through the air, but made no contact.
A sharp pain shot through his back as a blast of electricity arced from his father’s fingers from behind him, the energy surging through his nervous system. Ellac yelped, dropping his lightsaber as he fell to his knees, his singed robes beginning to smolder.
“Get up, Ellac!,” his father’s voice spat above him.
The toe of his father’s boot slammed right into Ellac’s stomach, knocking him onto his side.
“I killed you! I crushed your neck with my own hands!” Ellac shouted up at the figure before him. This was the first time he had fully seen his father since he appeared. His eyes were dark and cloudy, and there were bruises covering his neck where someone’s hands had wrapped around it. He hunched slightly forward as if he weren’t fully alive, but not dead either.
“Not in your mind, boy! I survived in your fear! You kept me alive!,” his father cackled.
As Ellac pushed himself to his knees, another boot caught him on the side of his head, sending him sprawling onto his stomach. His vision flashed white as the room spun, the shock of the impact causing his head to throb.
Stepping over Ellac, his father crouched down, grabbing his son’s neck with his hands, squeezing his neck as he leaned into his face. “You disappoint me, Ellac. After everything you’ve been through, you’re still weak.” He jammed his thumb into Ellac’s empty eye socket, causing the boy to cry out in pain. “Nothing but a coward, frightened of a dead man,” his father hissed as he watched Ellac gasp for air, struggling to stay conscious. “Come on, boy! Fight back, just like you did when I killed your mother.”
Ellac’s eye went wide at his father’s words. Concentrating his mind on the Force around him and his father. Ellac thrust both of his arms up towards his father, sending him flying into the air, landing with a heavy thud off to the side. Pushing himself to his feet, Ellac noticed every ache in his body. The sting in his back, the ache in his stomach, the pulsating throb in his head, all screamed out as he stood tall above his father on the ground. The Force around him grew dark as it passed through him, his own Dark Side energy corrupting it as he drew in more and more. The fear that had plagued his mind melted down like heated metal being poured into a mold to forge it into a deadly weapon. From his fear a deep anger grew, and from that anger grew his hatred, and from that hatred… His rage.
His vision faded as the world around him fell away. The last thing his eye could see was his father, rising to his feet. Extending his hand, Ellac recalled his lightsaber to his hand, its blade igniting with a bright red flash.
“Yes… Give into your anger, boy! Let it be like the breath in your lungs, and the blood in your viens!”
Ellac lunged at his father, no longer in control of his own movements. The Dark Side of the Force coursed through him, combining with his instincts to guide his blade towards his mark, strike after strike.
Dodging and weaving away from every blow, his father had managed to avoid getting hit, but relentlessly being driven into one of the corners of the room, he was losing ground quickly.
As Ellac’s blade spun furiously toward his cornered prey, he raised his weapon to deal the final blow, his lightsaber collided violently into another red blade that had sprung up from the hilt in his opponent’s hand.
The image of his father had melted away, Ellac hesitated for a brief moment as Sykes stood in his place.
“Show me the power of the Dark Side! Show me your rage!” Sykes shouted at his apprentice.
Ellac’s bloodlust pushed him forward, not fully aware of what was transpiring. The two Sith wielded their blades against each other, the Marauder against the Juggernaut, an unstoppable force against an immovable object.
Ellac pushed to his very limit, throwing everything he had at his master until finally exhausting himself. His breaths became ragged as he collapsed to his knees, mustering the last of his strength to look up at his master who stood above him.
Sykes looked down upon his battered apprentice, the malicious smirk finding its place upon his face once more. “Well done, my apprentice. Now you are Sith.”