Hello and thanks for deciding to give this story a go! Some of you may have come here via this story's prequel and maybe some of you stumbled upon here for the sake of curiosity. Regardless, I hope you end up enjoying it. But before you go on and read, allow me to make a few comments about this story.

First and foremost, this story is AU; Grievous is alive and well in this story and it will gravitate mostly around him. Also, unlike his belligerent, fiery and short-tempered self that we are so accustomed to seeing in the movie, cartoons and comics, his personality underwent a little change. Please keep in mind that this story takes place around forty five years after the Clone Wars ended so Grievous is now a little older and wiser. He also had plenty of time to think about his life and what he had done and he regrets many of the things he did. However, I promise I'll still keep much of his lovable character intact and you'll still be able to recognize him. Due to this story coinciding around the same time as the Yuuzhan Vong War (which I thought was ridiculous) began, I'm still trying to decide whether to include or even mention the event in this fic. There will also be plenty of OCs in this but there will also be a fair amount of canon characters as well (like Luke Skywalker. That's it for that spoiler though!).

For this chapter in particular, I admit it was challenging yet fun to write. I do like to dabble in the horror genre/writing and it came out in this. It was different for sure but I think it came out well. There's a chance some of you might be thinking "WTF just happened" when you finish reading it but hopefully not. Anyway, please enjoy and don't be afraid to share suggestions, constructive criticism or what-have-you. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Wars at all. Unfortunately Disney does. If I did own Star Wars, Grievous would live...simple as that. All I own are the OCs I use and the planet, Hyleea.

Chapter 1 Hazing Ritual

(Hyleea – 26 a.b.y.)

Nightfall had done nothing to discourage the young men from venturing into the darkened and potentially dangerous planetary forest. Without a care at all in their arrogant yet impressionable minds and with a few blaster pistols on their hips, the teenagers had vacated the warm and familiar atmosphere of the small colony they called home. One of the lads had glanced over his shoulder, seeing soft and inviting glows of light from his neighbors' windows before he turned his back on them again. His brother and two friends pressed on deeper into the woodlands, all feeling a little anxious and frightened but not daring to let their comrades in on their own private insecurities. The band would do what was necessary and hurry back home before their parents could find out that they had disobeyed their orders to remain within the colony after sunset. Luckily for them, the light of a single, large and full moon led them to where they were going and provided them with ample luminosity to press onwards.

"So…" the youngest member of the group, a Human, spoke up. "…where exactly are we going again?"

"Det, stop worrying, everything will be fine," Det's older brother, Pyrus, scolded him. "It's not too far away. Dad described the place to me where the incident occurred. There's a dead tree in a clearing. That's the place where we used to play when we were little, remember?"

"Is little Det getting a little spooked?" their Nautolan friend, Tikal, playfully teased the inductee.

"Shut up, Tikal!" Det lashed out. "I just don't want to end up getting ripped to pieces by a quagak! You know, they've been out and about from hibernation for the past few months and they do consider us fair game!"

"A quagak is the last thing we should be worried about," the last member of the group, a Rodian named Karr, spoke softly. He eyed his surroundings carefully, on the lookout for anything suspicious or hiding in the shadows from afar with ominously glowing orbs that stared back at him.

"It's been three weeks since the last sighting," Pyrus reasoned. "We'll be fine. We've all done it before and lived. Det will live too."

The four boys fell silent and continued their hike into the wilderness. The path they travelled on was often frequented by trappers, huntsmen and some harvesters so it was familiar to them. Since their home, the colony of Sauza, had been established over a decade ago, they had lived there for the majority of their lives. They, along with other children and the adults, had often ventured into the woods to explore the area and harvest necessities from the environment to survive. It was sometimes dangerous to go off into the woods, especially if one was by their lonesome and the colonists nearly always went off in pairs or in small groups to protect themselves. People did go missing, never returning to Sauza and others were found mutilated from an animal attack. For the sake of safety, the elders of the small settlement had voted that unless if it was absolutely necessary, no one was allowed to go out into the wilderness after the sun set. However, there were souls who did break that rule and the boys were just some of those perpetrators. They figured that as long as they could run, they had safety in numbers and had some blaster pistols, they would be alright.

Although the beasts of Hyleea could very well be deadly and intimidating to face and even think about, it became startlingly clear in time that there was something else on the planet that could be even more daunting than the animals. It was almost exclusively seen by the colony's children and the adults themselves had very rarely caught a glimpse of the local legend. As a result of that, their parents never truly took to heart the tales of the strange creature that they had seen watching them from the tree canopies. Instead, they dismissively explained to their offspring that they had seen an odd bird or their imaginations were overactive.

The four boys continued their trek onto the path. As long as they kept pressing deeper into the woods, the path began to narrow and became more overgrown. They knew that their destination was close by and once more, they were thankful they had the moonlight assisting them.

"Det's just afraid that the Skeleton is going to skin him and wear his flesh," Tikal continued to tease his friend.

"Tikal, shut up or I will tug those stupid tentacles out of the back of your head!" Det threatened the Nautolan.

The Rodian youth suppressed a shudder at the mention of the Skeleton. Like Det, he had feared the ghastly figure but he was better at costuming his anxiety than the youngest group member. He had never seen the Skeleton but he had heard a few tales about it from the children who had seen it or from adults who regaled the story to one another. Karr certainly believed in its existence but he had no desire to seek it out and lay his own eyes upon its shape.

"Pipe down," Pyrus scolded his brother. "We're not here to have a screaming contest. We have to be quick with this and head back home. Mom will kill us if she finds out we didn't end up going to Karr's house."

"There's nothing to worry about," Tikal said in a cheerful and upbeat tone. "I don't believe the story at all. Kids are kids and they make up stories like that for attention. Besides, if there was something here, I'm sure Old Byle would've caught it by now or mentioned something about it at a town meeting."

"Byle is a filthy Nemoidian that shouldn't be trusted! He worked on the side of the Confederacy during the Clone Wars!"

"I like him, he's a nice fellow. He never hurt a fly. He worked on a ship as an engineer, technician or something like that. It's not like he was going around killing people. He's not running around screaming 'For the Council!' at the top of his lungs either!"

"Don't like him, don't trust him, it's a simple as that…"

"Say…" Karr cleared his throat. "How much longer do you guys think we have to go? I thought we would be there by now."

Almost as if on cue, the boys took a few steps forward and found themselves in a small clearing. They heard a noise that sounded like the flowing of a stream about a few meters away. In the distance, they spotted a gnarled and tall silhouette of a dead tree that sat across the stream they had yet to spot. Up in the sky, a few wispy clouds began to cover the moon, depriving the four youths of some of their precious light source and guide.

"We're here now actually," Pyrus bit his lower lip. "Careful, everyone. Don't slip on the moss growing on the rocks."

As his brother and his friends began to press on, Det lagged behind. He refused to follow them for a few seconds before peer pressure got the better of him. The younger Human boy jogged up to them before he wedged himself between Pyrus and Karr.

"How long do I have to do this again?" Det asked.

"Five minutes," Tikal answered. "We all did our five minutes and nothing ever happened to us. This might be a little different for you, Det, since this is the location where the most recent sighting was."

Being sure to tread carefully through the stream and have stable footing, the boys stepped into it. Thankfully, they wore thick leather boots that insulated their feet from the chilly mountain water. The same boots also gave them enough traction where they could walk through the ankle-deep stream without too much of a problem. The only real threat the stream posed was moss that grew on the damp rocks that could create slick conditions for anyone who didn't watch where they set their feet on.

"Just what were Junee and Ashura doing out here anyway?" Karr wondered out loud.

Since Sauza was still a relatively small colony as it had been for the past decade, all the residents knew one another. Their children attended the same school and they grew up together. The boys knew the two sisters well and Tikal was their neighbor.

"Their father sent them out to collect some firewood and Ashura, being the idiot she is, decided to go see if the legends of Skeleton were real and went deeper into the woods," Pyrus recounted the tale to his friend. "Junee followed her of course since she's seven and she wanted to stick to her sister's side. They walked along the very same path we just took and stopped at the tree ahead for a little break. Junee begged and pleaded with Ashura to turn around and head back home because she believed the stories and she kept saying that she got the feeling they weren't alone. Ashura laughed at her though and eventually, decided to turn around and head back home. When they turned around to walk back over to the stream and cross it, they saw something jump clear across it and run off on two legs into the woods. They couldn't see it anymore but they could hear it dash through the woods and towards the direction of the mountain. They ran screaming at the top of their lungs back to the colony and told everyone what they had seen."

Off in the same direction where Sauza was established, there was the mountain that was rumored to be the lair of the creature. The colony had been established at the foot of the towering, snowcapped behemoth and had been aptly named Mount Grief due to the fact that some of the settlers lost their lives in trying to climb and explore it. Anymore, only Sauza's senior trapper, Byle and his apprentice, Les, went up to the mountain three times a week to check their snares. Many of the residents believed them to be extremely lucky to go up to the mountain and descend alive and in one piece with the fruits of the labors.

"They didn't see a ghost," Tikal dismissed the tale. "What they saw was a quagak running away on its hind legs."

"Tikal, you idiot," Karr sneered. "Quagaks walk very slowly on their hind legs. They can't jump across this stream on just those legs and run like the wind through the woods! They don't run away from people either as if they didn't want to be seen!"

The ursine quagak was at the top of the food chain in Hyleea's northern hemisphere, only to be rivaled by the odontid, the dominant feline-like predator that ruled the planet's lower half. The quagak was not a docile or meek creature in the slightest bit and was responsible for a few deaths since Sauza had been established. It was a large, bulky and shaggy beast that stood up to eleven feet tall on its hind legs and had huge, serrated teeth to compliment its daunting form. According to Ashura and Junee's report, what they had seen was most definitely not the alpha predator but instead, the planet's legend.

"Maybe it was a mutant quagak then!" Tikal chuckled. "It was no freakish man-skeleton that hunts people for their skins, that's for sure."

Karr rolled his eyes and tuned out his Nautolan companion. Without any other incident, the small group made it to the foot of the tree where the sisters turned around to head back home. In silence, they studied the whitewashed tree that had long since been stripped of its bark and leaves. It eerily reminded them of the entity but they didn't bother to tell each other that.

"Okay, Det," Pyrus nudged his shoulder into his brother's ribs. "Stand in front of the tree and stand there for five minutes. We're going to go back across the stream and wait for those minutes to pass."

"Wait, why are you leaving me here alone on the other side of the stream?!" Det began to panic.

"That's the rule. You have to stand where Junee and Ashura were when they saw it and we stand where it was standing. It's smart in a way if you think about it because we'll give each other cover."

Roughly, Det swallowed. There was no way he was going to get out of this and he was not backing down and showing his elder brother and his friends he was a coward. He had wanted in on their group and unfortunately, their hazing ritual consisted of this. If he stood in that spot for five minutes, he'd earn his place and he'd never have to do this again. Right now, it was at the point of no return.

"A-alright…" he murmured. Det leaned against the tree, feeling a little weak and sick to his stomach. "Go, guys."

"We'll let you know when time is up," Tikal promised. "Then you can run over to us and we'll head back home."

Det only nodded his head. Karr patted his shoulder in assurance and turned his back on him, following the other two youths. In silence and mounting fear, the inductee watched as his friends widened the gap between them from himself. His eyes didn't tear away from their shapes as they took each step. Although he was going to be standing in his exact position for five minutes, no more and no less, Det felt these were going to be the longest and most harrowing minutes of his life. He never even went this deep into the woods this late at night. He had done so during the daylight hours but never at this time. Also, standing in the exact spot where his neighbors had their sighting made it all the more terrifying and disconcerting for him.

They crossed the stream and turned around, facing him from a distance. He could barely make out their silhouettes as long as the clouds veiled the moon and warped his perception. Then he remembered that they had brought some blaster pistols with them just in case if they did run into some trouble. For a moment, he was temporarily comforted by this realization but he wondered that if such weapons would be enough to hold Skeleton at bay if the demonic-looking creature did make an appearance.

"You okay, Det?" Pyrus raised his voice so his brother could hear him over the babbling of the stream.

"Well, thirty seconds in and I'm still alive…" he answered. "It's best to remain optimistic."

Then there were no more exchanges. The other unwritten rule of the ritual was that communication was to be kept down to a minimum. It was to not only make the rite all the more suspenseful and rewarding if the inductee passed the test but there was also a bit of common sense embedded within it. Silence was required if they were to warn one another of dangerous animals that lingered in the shadows.

Det slowed his breath but his heart rate remained elevated. He shut his eyes, thinking that time would go by more quickly if he did that and tried to daydream. Anything would do nicely as long as it took his mind off whatever unpleasant denizens that the forest might be hiding.

About two and a half minutes into the ritual, Det heard something. Something was walking around behind him. His eyes immediately shot open as soon as he heard twigs snap dully about fifty feet away. He had no clue what it was and neither did he want to know. The dead tree blocked his view of whatever was stirring not too far away from his position and he didn't know whether he was unfortunate or lucky to have tree behind him.

"Guys!" Det called. "I hear something behind me!"

"You'll be fine!" Tikal promised. "Karr's counting and you've got a little over two minutes left. You sure it's not a group of fleet-hooves grazing?" The Nautolan boy was referring to the deer-like herbivores that ran rampant and evenly distributed across the planet.

He had a solid point. But something in the pit of Det's stomach told him this was not a shy and flighty fleet-hoof. They were graceful and quiet when they walked through the woods, their footsteps often inaudible and very slight. Unless if this particular fleet-hoof was a huge buck, Det was almost certain this wasn't the creature. Despite his growing paranoia, he attempted to dismiss and ignore the footsteps that were inching closer.

The advancing seemed to halt for about twenty seconds and Det still remained on guard and extremely vigilant of his surroundings. He ceased leaning against the tree and took a step away from it, no longer feeling so safe. He began to fidget in place and he started to feel that he was being hunted or stalked. However, he placed his trust in his brother and friends, hoping that they would alert him if they saw something sneaking up on him.

One minute passed and Det's time was almost spent. He simply could not wait until Karr would announce that the five minutes had passed and he would be permitted to rejoin them. All he could do now was weather out the rest of this torturous experience and then he would never have to do it again. He would return to Sauza alive and in one piece. Bragging rights would be his and he would put the other teenage boys to shame and pressure them to follow in his footsteps.

Then he heard an ungodly sound that made the blood in his veins turn to ice. Directly behind him, on the other side of the tree, he heard loud scratching noises. Something was dragging its claws across the bare trunk.

"PYRUS!" he screamed.

Pyrus' heart skipped a few beats when he heard Det cry out in horror like this. Just by the way he sounded, he was extremely confident that something was going on and he wasn't bluffing or trying to find a way to shorten his time. There was something in his brother's voice that convinced him that the terror he was experiencing was very real. He needed to get away from the tree as soon as possible.

Before he could grab his blaster pistol that hung around his waist or open his mouth to call Det over, he spotted something insidious unfolding around his brother much to the younger boy's ignorance. Slowly, he could see a huge and hulking figure peeking around the other side of the tree. The full moon at last had full reign over the sky once more and its light shone down on the ground, no longer cloaked by clouds. All three of the boys could see an entity looming directly behind Det who was quivering and trembling madly. Even from their distance, they could identify a pair of golden eyes that stood out amongst the darkness.

"DET!" Pyrus howled. "RUN! DON'T LOOK, JUST RUN!"

As soon as the light of the full moon illuminated his surroundings once more, Det had seen that his form was engulfed by a shadow that did not belong to the tree. Ignoring his brother's advice, he shakily turned around. When he did that, he was met with the figure of the Skeleton.

Just as the previous accounts of the entity dictated, it was very tall. In some eye witness descriptions, that seemed to vary by the season when it was encountered, it wore a billowing and concealing quagak skin cloak. It was early summer and the creature did not wear its garment like it did during the late fall and throughout winter. Since it wore no cloak, Det could see its body that helped to christen it the Skeleton. Its frame was eerily reminiscent of a skeletal system and there was no inch of skin or flesh on its body. What made it all the more unsettling and horrifying was that its "bones" almost seemed to gleam and glisten in the moonlight, making it look as if it was made of metal (in truth, it was). Even its hands were bony and its fingers were long and sharp, giving it the appearance that it had claws. Det couldn't see much of its face but what he did see was its golden, vibrant, reptilian eyes staring right back at him that stood out like luminous topaz gems in the shadows.

The four boys were so gripped by horror that all they could manage to do was stare back at the Skeleton. Their pistols were forgotten. The theories they drew up about the creature's origins and the tales they had heard from the witnesses echoed in their heads.

'…they say he was once a man who crash landed on Hyleea during a blizzard. He survived the crash but was forced to eat his own flesh to survive. Now he wanders the mountains and forests to seek out victims to skin so he can have his flesh back and walk amongst others once more. Only little kids and teenagers see him because he knows the adults won't listen to them.'

'I saw him looking at my sister and I when we decided to turn around and head back home when we were exploring. He then jumped across the stream and took off into the woods…he was running off to the direction of Mt. Grief where they say he lives in a cave up near the summit.'

'I saw a giant in the woods when I wandered too far away from Mommy when she was picking berries. He was up in a tree having a starring contest with me! We had a staring contest for a little bit before Mommy found me. I told her about the giant sitting in the tree but when I tried to show her to him, he disappeared! She told me I shouldn't lie and make up stories…'

The spirit of Hyleea then raised a clawed hand and reached out for Det, undoubtedly to claim his hide. Det snapped out of his fear induced spell when he moved and he turned around, screaming at the top of his lungs and bolting away. The other three teenagers then imitated his actions and he watched as the group had ran back clamoring and hollering all the way to Sauza.

Grievous chuckled at the sight. Of course he wasn't going to claim the youth's hide to construct a macabre suit of flesh so he could blend in amongst the galaxy again. But he didn't have any qualms in playing along with them and misleading them to believe he was a cursed, demonic entity. Besides having Byle and Les visit him in the mountains three times a week, he had nothing better to do with his life.

"You four boys will add that to the list of sightings and myths of the infamous and terrifying Skeleton, won't you?" he spoke to himself.

Although he took delight in spooking and jesting with the colony's teenagers, his supposedly sinister and ominous sightings were actually ones of goodwill and concern. Since Sauza's establishment a decade earlier, he very quickly learned that the people desired to be a self sufficient and adventurous people who yearned to explore the unspoiled planet and sustain themselves with its bounty. He was not very concerned about the smarter and hardier adults but his concerns lied with the colonists' innocent and curious children. The cyborg tasked himself as the silent babysitter of sorts for any children who strayed into the woodlands without the supervision of their parents. Of course, no one knew of his true intentions but he didn't mind being regaled as the planet's most enduring ghost story. As long as his true identity was not discovered, he did not mind. He would continue to be a strange sentinel to the young.

He had prowled the woods surrounding the colony long enough on this night and decided to head back to his humble cave on the mountain. Grievous peered into the summery forest, on the lookout for anymore possible teens or anyone who should not have been wandering around at this hour. He lurked around in these woods for over forty years and knew of the area consisting of Mount Grief and its woody expanses very well. Compared to even the colony's worthiest hikers and woodsmen, he was far superior than they were. There were a few times when he had found a dead explorer who had been trying to climb the mountain and took pity on the soul so much so that he ended up burying them in the eternal and never melting snow that capped the mountain.

Grievous quickly located his bow and quiver that he had set against a fallen log that sat a few meters away from where the infamous dead tree stood. He picked up his weapon and strapped the quiver across his back, securing it in place. The Kaleesh cyborg looked deeper into the woods, off in the direction where the boys were running. For a brief moment, he mulled over whether to evacuate the area and head back to the mountain or stick around and resume his previous task of patrolling the woods. Without a doubt, he knew the four youths would tell their parents and neighbors about their encounter but he had noticed that the adults seemed to pay no heed to their tales. Most of them were dismissed and treated as a ploy to grab attention and raise a ruckus.

He didn't need to ponder over his decision for too long as his eyes wandered and he gazed upon his mountain abode. It was so inviting and secure but it was also painfully lonely and forbidding. Mount Grief had called to him yet he also wanted to not return to it just yet. There were no sentient souls waiting for him to return to his cozy and quaint cave. Neither would there be any person who wished for him to join them in Sauza. At this point, it was almost a no-brainer.

After flexing his talons for a few seconds, Grievous launched himself forward and took off sprinting at an incredible gait and speed. It took him awhile to master the loudness of his footsteps, especially when he was running but he had perfected it now. Sometimes it couldn't be helped if he had accidentally crushed a twig while in this act but he didn't sound like a bantha tearing through the forest without a care in the world. The snow provided even more cover for him but he always ended up leaving distinct footprints that would befuddle all but his two friends. During the winter, he often resorted to hiding within the canopies of the trees and jumping from tree top to tree top to avoid his tracks from being seen by too many colonists.

"I'd be more than happy to roam the galaxy and bee free," he told himself within the confines of his mind. "I'd love to be able to return to my homeworld and see my family again. I'd like to know how many grandchildren I have and how my Ronderu is doing serving as our family's overlord. I cannot have those wishes granted… I have to remain here for as long as I live. This is my punishment…it's especially all the more painful since I find it incredibly difficult to die. The very least I can do to atone for my sins is remain in exile and keep a watchful eye on the children who wander so stupidly from the safety of their parent's side. Someone must safeguard them when their guardians are not in the area."

Grievous didn't even want to admit it to even himself but he prided himself over his self-imposed duties. He even watched over Pyrus and Det plenty of times from the cover of the trees when they snuck off to explore the woods when they were no older than ten. He knew a great majority of the children's names and he watched them grow up over the years. To his reluctance, he saw that he became somewhat fond and protective of them. Quite a few quagaks were slain by him when they were one mile too close to the children's location. Unbeknownst to the young ones and their own parents, he had saved a child or two with his mere presence; even the local predators were intimidated by him and often backed down or vacated the area when they had caught his scent or saw him. The fauna was frightfully aware of his presence but thankfully the colonists remained ignorant and doubtful of his existence.

Though he wanted to remain undiscovered by all, Grievous couldn't help to not feel lonely. He wished to speak to others besides Les and Det but he had also treasured their company for they were the only friends he had. In truth, he was hoping that loneliness would finally kill him in the end.

Apparently I may have succeeded in turning him into Slendercyborg... I know this chapter is kinda weird and may not have that Star Wars feel but rest assured, things will get better. Thank you for reading!