Whispers of Darkness

Epilogue

Sidious and Grievous exited the Bast Castle. The detachements of droids were waiting for them. The magnaguards went to the wounded General quickly.
'Take him to the the moon of Vassek.
The Dark Lord looked at Grievous.
'You have done well, General.
'But...
'This planet is in our possession and you have discovered a Sith that was hiding here for 500 years. Without you, it would have been never discovered his existence, until it was too late. You have preformed quite well, if I do say so myself. Now go and repair yourself. The darkside left it's mark on your metalic body. I hope your mind wasn't tampered by Vectivus.
'No, he was unable to control me.
'Good... await Count Dooku's orders. You won't tell him of our endeavour!
'Yes, lord Sidious.
The Dark Lord returned to his shuttle and left the surface. Grievous remained down looking at his master's departure. He was actually glad that escaped the terrible whispers that hounded in his head all that journey. A magnaguard suddenly spoke:

'General, Count Dooku is contacting you.

'Ignore him!

'But sir!

'Prepare the ship to departure and leave a garrison in the Bast Castle! Did you salvage my starfighter?

Grievous hoped the Soulless One was repaired. His personal ship was very fast and could deal a great deal of firepower and damage. The loss of it would be sad.

'Yes, General. Your starship is in the Invisible's Hand hangar, although not in a peak condition.

'Good... let's leave this foul place. I am done with the dark side...

The General and his magnaguars entered a shuttle and left the surface. Entering the Hangar, a squad of droidekas appeared and surrounded Grievous.

'What is the meaning of this?!

The magnaguards activated their electrostaffs and prepared to defend their master. Grievous saw that he was in great dissadvantage. Missing one arm, it was kinda hard to fight the Confederacy's most powerfull droids. The destroyer droids started shooting at him. The magnaguards charged while Grievous sneaked to the elevator. He entered and sliced the B1 soliders that were guarding it with ease. He looked behind and saw how his special guards were shot down one by one.

The Private Quarters of Grievous were not as luxurious as many would think. Although his rooms were huge and had many potential royal furniture, it was decorated with a dull gray and only the usefull facilities were allowed in. A few chairs, a desk, a nutrient-feeder and a table where his cloaks and lightsabers were exposed. Typing the acces codes, Grievous entered the room. He must reach the medbay to repair his hand and his quarters hid the cyborgs replacement parts. Searching a secret deposit, he took a spare hand. In that moment, the room's door was destroyed by a rocket launcher. Some battle droids entered and started to shoot the cyrborg. He dodged them and jumped on them, picking one with his clawed foot and hitting the others in a rotate-kick. They fell down broken. From the smoke appeared some superbattle droids with their wrist cannons. However, Grievous punched them down with his remaining fist, breaking their inside circuits. Throwing one of them in the B2 droids, the General ran to through the confusion and headed to the Medbay. He turned left and bumped into a female, making her fall on her back. However, Grievous didn't even shake. He looked at his opponent when he recognized Assaj Ventress.

'Witch! Why are my droids attacking me?!

'You have not responded to Dooku for 3 days and now you show up? What were you doing on Vjun?

'It's confidential. Only Separatist Top-ranking officers are allowed to know.

'But I...

'You are nothing! Get out of my way!

Assaj wanted to ignite her lightsabers, but Grievous picked her throat and started chocking her.

'You won't interfere with my affairs, Ventress! Who's leading this ship?

'There... is a new admiral... he's talking to Dooku in a special session...

Grievous threw Assaj in the wall, knocking her out. He sped up to the Medbay and sliced the droids, leaving the room lifeless. He picked his hand and started to repair himself. Dissmembring his remaining metal from his former limbs, now he attached the new one with a slight mark of clumpsyness, but in the end, his hand and fingers worked fine. Laughing happy that he has regained it, Grievous ignited both of his lightsabers and ran to the Command Bridge to slay the new admiral that wanted him dead. On the long corridors of his flagship, the cyborg slashed and cut thorugh every droid that came in his way. At one point, some stupid B1 soliders decided that it's best to left the monster do his bidding and not interfere. Finally, Grievous reached the entrance. He impaled the door with his two lightsabers and formed a circle. Then he furiously kicked it in. Entering slowly, he saw Dooku and the Separatist Admiral discussing while the droids were doing their jobs at the consoles. Both confederate members were surprised to see him.

'General, I see you are not quite dead!

Dooku looked angry at the Admiral.

'My associate here told me you have perished not long ago. I see he has been mistaken...

'No, everything seemed as I said Dooku.

Grievous couldn't stand for that liar and showed all his four arms. Approaching him fast, he picked him by the shoulders and he used the other two hands holding the lightsabers to cut his head. The dead body and his missing skull fell down on the floor. Dooku was a bit angry at losing that Admiral's life but decided not to mention it.

'So, General... now that you have eliminated this liar, can you tell me why did you dissapear?

'I had to conquer this system. And it was heavily defended.

'I see... you should go to repair yourself. Your armor is full of scars. Did any witness escape?

'No, I killed the Jedi scums and their clones. No survivors.

'Most impressive, considering the small fleet you commanded. I want to speak with you about your next objective. But not here. Contact me when you return to your castle in the Vassek star system.

'Yes, Count.

'Farewell, General!

The transmission ended. Looking with disgust at the corpse, he ordered two droids to drop him in the space. Speaking with the captain of the Invisible Hand, he found out that Assaj Ventress left the fleet and jumped into Hyperspace. He will kill that witch someday. In this war, the allegiances seem to change as the sunrises appear. Or so it would seem...