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Des was speechless.

“You would no longer be a trooper on the front lines,” Kopecz continued. “If you accept my offer, that part of your life is over. You will be trained in the ways of the dark side. You will become one of the Brotherhood of Darkness. And you will not return to the Gloom Walkers.”

Des felt his heart pounding, his head swimming. As long as he could remember, he’d known he was special because of his unique talents. And now he was being told that his abilities were nothing compared with what he could really accomplish.

Still, part of him balked at the idea of leaving his unit without even having a chance to say good-bye. He considered Adanar, Lucia, and the others as more than just fellow soldiers; they were his friends. Could he really abandon them like this, even for the chance to join the Sith Masters?

He recalled one of the last things Groshik had ever said to him: Don’t count on others for help. In the end each of us is in this alone. The survivors are those who know how to look out for themselves.

Everything he’d had, he’d given to his unit. He’d saved their lives too many times to count. And in the end, when the enforcers had come to take him away, they’d been powerless to save him. They would have tried if he’d let them, but they would have failed. Des realized the truth: his unit—his friends—could do nothing for him now.

He could rely only on himself, like always. He’d be a fool to turn this opportunity down.

“I am honored, Master Kopecz, and I gratefully accept your offer.”

“The way of the Sith is not for the weak,” the big Twi’lek warned. “Those who falter will be … left behind.” There was something ominous in his tone.

“I won’t be left behind,” Des replied, unfazed.

“That remains to be seen,” Kopecz noted. Then he added, “This is a new beginning for you, Des. A new life. Many of the students who come here take a new name for themselves. They leave their old life behind.”

Des had no desire to hang on to any part of his old life. An abusive father, the brutality of working the mines on Apatros; he had been seeking a new life for as long as he could remember. The Gloom Walkers had offered an escape, but it had been a temporary one. Now he had a chance to leave his past behind forever. All he had to do was embrace the Brotherhood of Darkness and its teachings. And yet, for reasons he couldn’t explain, he felt the cold grip of fear closing in on him. The fear made him hesitate.

“Do you wish to choose a new name for yourself, Des?” Kopecz asked, possibly sensing his reluctance. “Do you wish to be reborn?”

Des nodded.

Kopecz smiled once more. “And by what name shall we call you now?”

The fear would not stop him; he would seize the fear, transform it, and make it his own. He would take what had once made him weak and use it to make himself strong.

“My name is Bane. Bane of the Sith.”

Lord Qordis, exalted Master of the Sith Academy on Korriban, scratched gently at his chin with long, talon-like fingers.

“This student you have brought me—this Bane—has never been trained in the ways of the Force?”

Kopecz shook his head and twitched his lekku ever so slightly in annoyance. “As I told you before, Qordis, he grew up on Apatros, a world controlled by the ORO Company.”

“Yet you managed to find this young man and bring him here to the Academy. It seems almost too convenient.”

The heavyset Twi’lek snarled. “This is not a plot against you, Qordis. That is no longer our way. We are a Brotherhood now, remember? You are too suspicious.”

Qordis laughed. “Not suspicious; cautious. It has helped me to maintain my position here among so many powerful and ambitious young Sith.”

“He is as powerful as any of them,” Kopecz insisted.

“But he is also older. We prefer to find our students when they are younger and more … malleable.”

“Now you sound like a Jedi,” Kopecz sneered. “They seek younger and younger pupils, hoping to find them pure and innocent. In time they will refuse any who are not infants. We must be quick to pluck those they leave behind. Besides,” he continued, “Bane is too