501. Manipulation of Emotion - Raezyr

"Wh-what is that thing, anyway?" Mannix stammered, still staring at the gun-metal gray droid and hiding partially behind Raezyr.

"Information: I am HK-51, protocol/security unit," Aitchkay began in his synthesized voice, "I am fluent in more than three million forms of communication and programmed with more than twelve hundred forms of combat..."

"That's enough, Huck," Raezyr interrupted, then turned to Mannix. "Twelve hundred and one if you include 'talking to death.'"

Mannix just stared at the machine, not sure what to make of it. Raezyr and Trychon just chuckled. "You better get used to him, kid. Unless you plan on staying here by yourself, that is."

"What happened? After you told me to leave, I went and hid at the mine. Where are all the survivors? And where are my parents?" Mannix asked, clearly close to tears.

Raezyr turned to Trychon, clearly at a loss for words.

Trychon rolled his eyes and injected the stim that Aitchkay had just handed him. Immediately he began to feel better as the effects started to wash over him. "Look, let's go over to that bench and sit down. This is probably going to be hard for you to hear."

They walked to the nearby bench and sat down. "I don't know of any easy way to say this, so I'm just going to put it bluntly. Everyone you have ever known is dead."

Mannix stared blankly for a moment, then tears began to well up in his eyes. "Mom? Dad?"

"I'm sorry, Mannix," Trychon said, resting his hand on the young man's shoulder. "What's worse, is that this whole thing is our fault."

Mannix looked at him questioningly, as did Raezyr. What are you doing? he thought to his brother.

Trychon ignored the telepathic question and continued. "We haven't been entirely honest with you, Mannix. You see, we were sent here by our Master to try and stop Varth. Clearly we failed."

Raezyr turned his head to conceal his grin.

"Varth? What does he have to do with this?" Mannix asked confusedly.

"Our master knew that Varth was really a dark Jedi named Vikon. He's been running around masquerading as one of our order... and order of Force users called the Sith. He knew that Vikon was up to something evil and sent us here to investigate, and to try and prevent him from doing whatever it was he was up to," Trychon explained.

"But why didn't you stop him right away?" Mannix questioned.

"We were instructed not to actively influence the Taxl way of life, and we did that the best we could, while at the same time trying to find out what his next move was going to be. As far as the prophecies go, we always told you that we weren't the ones, didn't we? And at the end, even we started to get sucked into Vikon's web of lies. We know now that he was using the Force to peer into the future, and then making up those prophecies himself, inserting them into places that would make sense as he "transcribed" your ancient manuscripts," Trychon continued.

Mannix stared at the ground, the tears silently falling into the mud at his feet.

"When the fighting broke out, he used that as his opportunity. We tried to warn others to get out, but no one would listen. He attacked us from behind and left us for dead. After making sure that no one was else was alive, he stole the amulets and fled."

Mannix looked up at Trychon, anger and hatred replacing sorrow as the source of his tears. "I hate Var... Vikon so much."

Raezyr squatted down in front of Mannix and looked the young Taxl in the eyes. "You must learn the Sith ways of the Force, if you plan on accompanying us to get revenge on Vikon."

"Teach me," Mannix said with determination, fire burning in his eyes.