The Bane of my existence.

(a/n: The early stages of Malekith's journey will be done in an odd way. The timeskips will be common, but later on I will do a few chapters before moving on. Sorry for the weirdness, but there isn't much of a way to make scholar work interesting. If you feel I'm going to fast, I can make a chapter formatted like a diary over the decade.)

------------

Malekith had been pretty quiet the last decadr. He had studied and practiced in peace, well, as much peace as you can have in an order that prioritizes emotion.

He had become a sort of prodigy, he had read every tome, manuscript, and archived datapiece in the acadamy's library and was just below mastery in his chosen saber technique.

His 'peace' had been taken behind the shed and silenced like a rabid dog when the unholy entity soon to be known as Darth Bane entered the frey. Bane sucked up knowledge like a sponge on adderall, and had discovered an amazing source of said knowledge.

When one thinks of the man that instated the rule of two, who killed an entire brotherhood of the sith, and who's legacy drove the Jedi to near *extinction*, you would not think of a grown man clinging to another grown man like a fucking 7-year-old. He wanted to know *everything*.

Bane, or Des, wasn't that bad by himself. What made it so annoying was the raging bitch known as Githany. Githany, for all her glory, was an entitled brat and attention whore in the shape of a woman. She followed Bane like a lost cat in heat.

Malekith was perfectly fine with tutoring the two, teaching them most of what he read and learned throughout the years. About 4 years in the academy had hired him on as an archivist, curator, and librarian. He had slowly but surely expanded the new found 'Archive of the Brotherhood' to a wonderfully large database of beauty. The academy recognized him as a neutral force user, and with some heavy contracts and bindings, trusted him with some of the more 'problematic' sith artifacts and knowledge's.

He had tried to keep Bane on the same track as before, albeit more knowledgeable this time, as to keep the wider galaxy predictable. He had a feeling the force would *severely* minimize the butterfly effect. He knew Bane was only a year or so away from proclaiming himself the new dark lord of the sith, but Malekith would get as much done as possible beforehand.

Malekith's personal project was gaining income, and lot's of it. He had very quickly learned to be a savvy investor and amazing capitalist. He was very lucky on that he could invest in the most profitable entity in all of time, war. Malekith bought shares in the up and coming Kuat Drive Yards and Cortosis mining operations using the budget assigned to him and his new 'department'. He had made a great sum in personal finances and a fortune for the brotherhood, all thanks to Lydia.

Lydia had become much nicer over time, and much more amiable. She could read through his eyes now and used that to make the best decisions using the database within Malekith's mind. If he allowed her, she could partially 'possess' him and make actions for him. Oddly, she couldn't use the force, which meant the force was tied to your soul.

Malekith was currently examining an artifact from Yavin he had recently acquired when a familiar man entered the room.

"Grand Curator, I find myself curious about something."

"Ask away, Des."

"Why was the title of Darth removed?"

"Lord Kaan believed that title lead to the destruction of the former sith, which isn't entirely correct, but it was a contributing factor."

"How could a simple title ruin an entire empire?"

"The idea of the old system in it's perfect state was to allow the strong to rise and achieve the title, but it ended up creating resentment in the apprentices and led to groups of younger sith creating pacts to kill the older. I personally believe the infighting was caused for separate reasons."

"How so?"

"Tell me, Des, what is the objective of the Sith order?"

"To further the dark side of the force."

"Now tell me, when a title grants you power, and not achieving that title means possible death, what are they fighting for?"

Bane took a second to think about it.

"They would be fighting for personal gain, using the force as a tool to achieve their means."

"Thus, no more Darth."

"Is it not worse to make the weak equal to the strong though?"

I smiled at him.

"Notice why I separated myself from the brotherhood?"

Bane seemed deep in thought for a few minutes.

"Thank you for your time, Grand Curator."

"The pleasure is mine."

And the begining of the new era was set in motion.