It was the perfect place to meet Kaan's envoy. A Sith fleet would be quickly detected by the Republic vessels patrolling the region, but a small ship and a skillful pilot could sneak in without any trouble. Bane had no intention of setting up a meeting someplace where Kaan could send an armada to wipe him out.
He waited patiently in his camp for Kaan's emissary to arrive. Occasionally he glanced up at the sky or looked out across the horizon, but he wasn't worried about anyone sneaking up on him. He'd see a ship coming in to land from several kilometers away. And if they came to him in a ground vehicle, like the land crawler sitting on the edge of his camp, he'd hear the grinding of its engines or feel the unmistakable vibrations of its heavy treads as they churned their way over the uneven terrain.
Instead all he heard was the gentle lapping of Lake Natth's dark waters against the shore not five meters from where he sat. And all the while, his mind wrestled with the only question he still had no answer for.
Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power, the other to crave it. Once he had rid the galaxy of the Brotherhood of Darkness, where would he find a worthy apprentice?
The whine of a Buzzard's engines pulled him away from his thoughts. He rose to his feet as the ship dropped from the sky and circled his camp once before touching down a short distance away. When the landing ramp lowered and he saw who came down, he couldn't help but smile.
'Githany,' he said, rising to greet her once she had crossed the distance between them. 'I was hoping Lord Kaan would send you.'
'He didn't send me,' she replied. 'I asked to come.'
Bane's heart began to beat a little quicker. He was glad to see her; her presence awakened a hunger inside him he had almost forgotten existed. Yet he was troubled, too. If anyone could see through his ruse, it was her.
'Did you see the message?' he asked, studying her carefully to gauge her reaction.
'I thought you were over this, Bane. Self-pity and regret are for the weak.'
Relieved, he bowed his head to continue his charade. 'You're right,' he mumbled.
She stepped in closer to him. 'You can't fool me, Bane,' she whispered, and his muscles tensed in anticipation of what she would do next. 'I think you're here for something else.'
He held his ground as she leaned in slowly, poised to react at the first hint of threat or danger. He let his guard down only when she brushed her lips softly against his.
Instinctively his hands came up and seized her shoulders, pulling her in closer, pressing her lips and body hard up against his own as he drank her in. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and neck, returning his insistence with her own urgency.
Her heat enveloped them. The kiss seemed to last for all eternity; her scent wrapped around their entwined flesh until he felt he was drowning in it. When she at last broke away he could see the fierce eagerness in her eyes and still taste the sweet fire of her lips. He could taste something else, too.
Poison!
Bedazzled by her kiss, it took him a second to realize what had happened. Whether Githany believed him or not hadn't mattered. She'd asked Kaan to let her come here so she could kill him. For a brief second he was worried. until he recognized the faint tricopper taste of rock worrt venom.
He laughed, gasping slightly for air. 'Magnificent,' he breathed. Secrecy. Guile. Betrayal. Githany may have been corrupted by the Brotherhood's influence, but she still understood what made the dark side strong. Was it possible she could be his one true apprentice, despite her allegiance to the Brotherhood?
She smiled coyly at his compliment. 'Through passion we gain strength.'
Bane could feel the poison working its way through his system. The effects were subtle. Had his growing strength in the dark side not made his senses hyperaware, he probably wouldn't even have noticed its presence for several hours. Yet once again, Githany had underestimated him.
Rock worrt venom was powerful enough to kill a bantha, but there were far more rare, and lethal, toxins she could have chosen. The dark side flowed through him, thick as the blood in his veins. He was Darth Bane now, a true Dark Lord. He had nothing to fear from her poison.
The fact that she had thought he wouldn't detect it on her lips, the fact that she thought it would even harm him, meant that she must have believed his performance. She suspected he had fallen away from the dark side again; she thought he was weak. He was glad: it made her decision to side with Kaan more forgivable. Maybe there was still hope for her after all. But he had to be sure.
'I'm sorry for abandoning you,' he said softly. 'I was blinded by dreams of past glory. Naga Sadow, Exar Kun, Darth Revan. I lusted after the power of the great Dark Lords of the past.'
'We all crave power,' she replied. 'That is the nature of the dark side. But there is power in the Brotherhood. Kaan is on the verge of succeeding where all those before him have failed. We are winning on Ruusan, Bane.'
Bane shook his head, disappointed. How could she still be so blind? 'Kaan may be winning on Ruusan, but his followers are losing everywhere else. His great Sith army has crumbled without its leaders. The Republic has driven them back and reclaimed most of the worlds we conquered. In a few more months the rebellion will be crushed.'
'None of that matters if we can wipe out the Jedi,' she explained eagerly, her eyes blazing. 'The war has taken a heavy toll on the Republic. Once the Jedi are gone, we can easily rally our troops and turn the tide of war. All we have to do is wipe them out, and the ultimate victory will be ours! All we have to do is win on Ruusan!'
'There are other Jedi besides those on Ruusan,' he replied.
'A few, but they are scattered in ones and twos across the galaxy. If the Army of Light is destroyed, we can hunt them down at our leisure.'
'Do you really believe Kaan will win? He has claimed imminent victory before, then failed to deliver on his promise.'
'For one who claims to want to join the Brotherhood,' she noted with some suspicion, 'you don't seem
