As soon as the plant-beast spoke, promising no harm to the servants of the Maw while it pursued its vengeance against the Sith, Tu'teggacha knew what he
ought to do: he
ought to throw Ana from the saddle, to leave her in the valley, for the drengir to consume. She was an enemy, friend to the very powers they had come here to raid and undermine. Their entire dance through the graveyard, the advantage swinging back and forth between them, had been a contest that could have left either of them dead. Here was his chance to finish it, to ensure that she would not have the chance to oppose them in the future.
And yet... something inside him resisted that instinct. Even he was not sure quite why.
So the Taskmaster did not engage in a sudden but inevitable betrayal. Instead he helped Ana into the saddle, wryly noting the force pike still clutched in her hand, and then snapped his wasp's reins. The creature took off, thankfully capable of handling the added weight - it helped that Tu'teggacha was small and Ana was slight of build. Its buzzing wings and internal buoyancy organs carried it and its riders upward, over the edge of the valley. The jungle felucian warriors who followed Darth Arcanix still lurked at the cliffside; the Ebruchi had to trust that they would not try to shoot him down with Ana beside him.
With another sharp crack of the reins, Tu'teggacha guided the creature into a landing in the nearby clearing. The mission had not gone at all as expected; he suspected that they had captured only a few jungle creatures, if any, and they had not even come close to finding the mad shaman and his mysterious artifact. With the Maw soon forced to withdraw to avoid the Sith Eternal's full wrath, that artifact would almost certainly fall into the hands of the planet's masters in the end. But the reemergence of the Drengir was a promising development for the manpower-strapped Brotherhood, and that might make it all worthwhile.
The gore wasp landed amid the towering fungal trees, allowing Ana to dismount. It would be easy for her to return to her allies now, without facing the overwhelming wrath of the drengir in that small, enclosed space. Tu'teggacha hoped he hadn't angered the plant creatures too much by denying them their prey, but it was done now; there was no going back.
"An... odd alliance," he mused aloud, glancing back at the young Sith.
"And now, here we are. I have sensed your potential and seen your strength. There is a destiny ahead of you, I think, one that it was not my place to interrupt." He paused a moment, thinking.
In the end, he decided to reveal a hidden truth, one that the masses of marauders did not even suspect. Perhaps, in the long run, it would gain the Brotherhood an ally.
"Remember this, young Sith: there is a New Sith Order rising, one that will rule from the shadows while the galaxy is reforged. A Sith of your strength could claim her place in it, if she so desired." The Taskmaster turned away, preparing to take off once again; he needed to gather his surviving forces and evacuate, fading away before retaliation found him.
"Seek us out, if you do not wish to fade away. Perhaps there lies your destiny."
Meanwhile,
Tarok Vassket
watched as the surviving marauders and beastmasters fled back up the canyon, beckoning him to come with them. The drengir had promised safety to the Maw so long as they did not get in the way... but clearly some of them
had been considered to be between the monsters and their prey. It was best to run if they wanted to survive, for the ravenous planets would brook no interference in their vengeance against the Sith, even if unintentional. For his part, Tarok had hunted well; he would be honored in the halls of the Brotherhood that night for his capture of the rancor... so long as he escaped.