I: Genesis

Yssa Larian was eleven years old when she died. When the Empire came to Kessel, there was chaos and resistance on the surface as the gang-bosses refused to surrender their resources. They fell eventually, though, as did everyone and everything. As the stormtroopers marched into the building where the Larians lived along with hundreds of other families, Yssa's first experience of the Empire was that of efficient, organised conquest. She hadn't heard how the tall men in white armour had got there, of course - her parents had sheltered their child from the terrifying reality of war. So when she was led away from her parents into a room with dozens of other children, queued up in single file to see the strange old man with the black robes, Yssa nonchalantly waved goodbye just like every other time.

That goodbye, of course, was to be her last. As the old man - Yssa had heard one of the stormtroopers refer to him as Master Yanis - turned away child after child, it was her turn in line. Yanis seemed kind and almost avuncular as she stepped up to his platform and he placed a gloved hand on her forehead. However, his demeanour quickly changed after a moment, and he nodded grimly to the red-plated trooper that was accompanying him. In what seemed to Yssa like a fraction of a second, the gathered children were hurried out of the room by stormtroopers until only her, Master Yanis, and his guards remained.

Once they were on the ship and heading off into the abyss of space, Yanis told Yssa many things. He told her that she had a power within her, a special gift that would be very useful to the Empire. He told her that the Empire was good and kind, and only wanted to help Yssa and the people of her planet. He told her not to worry about her parents, that they would be just fine, and that she was now lucky to be a trainee warrior for the Empire. As the Imperial troops left Kessel and the firebombs fell in their wake, obliterating Yssa Larian's entire life up until that point, Master Yanis told her with a gleam in his eye that she was Yssa Larian no more. And so Yssa died, and Apprentice Tanir was born in the body that used to be hers.


II: Ascension

Six years on, and Tanir was well educated in the ways of the Sith. She was privy to many secrets of the Empire and the Force, and still followed it unquestioningly. When Master Yanis had guided her to complete a lightsaber of her very own, sleek and curved with a beautiful hook near the emitter, she could have wept for joy had she not been taught to avoid showing weakness in such a manner. That had been when she was fourteen, and now Tanir had entered the more advanced stage of her training.

Leaving her quarters one day, just like every other day aboard the Unyielding, she had headed to the training room situated in the lower areas of the Star Destroyer that had become her home. As Tanir marched authoritatively down the corridors in her black Sith robes, her auburn hair flowing over her shoulders, she was met with absolute respect as every stormtrooper guard along the way sharply saluted. Summarily ignoring them, she continued into the training room, one hand lightly tracing the handle of the lightsaber at her belt.

Tanir was met by a now-familiar sight; Master Yanis, her mentor, standing behind a wall of armed battle droids. He smiled as she entered the room, and once the blast doors were fully closed, he pressed a button on a remote. Tanir's lightsaber blazed into life in her hand, casting blood-red reflections on the black metal bulkheads surrounding her, and the droids opened fire. One might even have felt a hint of pity for the mechanical beings as they were deftly and casually shredded by the fledgling Sith's implacable assault. As Tanir leapt forward, the crimson blade whirling around at her command, several blaster shots were deflected back into the droids and immediately disabled them. The remainder were rent limb from limb by her terrifyingly efficient duelling style, and when Tanir finally stood unmoving in the centre of a circle of scorched and twisted metal, Yanis gave her an approving nod. She was almost ready, he mused.


III: Apotheosis

It took almost a decade for her to find out, but Tanir is no less furious for the time that has passed. As she stares at the information on the screen before her, she feels nothing but an endless, burning, fury. It is a report detailing the successes of the Kessel mission and the retrieval of a new Force-sensitive individual to serve the Empire, and it contains video footage of her entire city being bombed into nothingness from orbit once the Imperials had got what they wanted - her. The Larians are reduced to ash, and the Empire is in reality the polar opposite of the sugar-coated lie that Tanir has been fed.

There are no words to be exchanged when she strides into her Master's quarters - the look on her face says it all. Lightsabers ignite and spark against each other, Yanis loses an arm, and Tanir is only stopped by the realisation that his death will set off biometric alarms and bring guards running. She Force-chokes her former mentor - now hated foe - into unconsciousness, puts her vengeance aside for now, and sets off at a run down the corridor. Tanir reaches the Unyielding's shuttle bay and opens the door of what used to be Yanis' craft using the Force, an ability that's second nature to her by now.

It takes a few minutes for the Imperial command to realise what has just happened, but by then, Tanir is long gone. Palpatine and his lackeys have had their secret weapon severely wounded, and they have lost a vital piece in their plan - the newest Sith. Not only that, but she has taken with her a valuable lightsaber and a large amount of incredibly secret data relating to the Empire's plans. In the cockpit of the shuttle, piloting it out into the void with Force-guided intuition, Tanir smiles for the first time - and the last. For the time of another death and rebirth has come, she decides. Yes. Apprentice Tanir is dead, and Darth Kiena laughs out loud as the elegant Sith Lord's shuttle carries her further and further away from her enemies. She is free.