Disclaimer: I own nothing.
How It Should Be
Arianne had had enough. She couldn't take it anymore. She had no idea how long she had been in this fracking tomb, but it felt like years since she had been in the shyrack cave, leaving her friends behind.
"If I'm not back in four days, leave. Get to the Ebon Hawk and get out of here. Go find Master Kavar and the rest of the Jedi. Destroy the Sith. I'm counting on you." Atton looked reluctant and uneasy at the thought. "Promise me. Please?"
"... Fine... I have a bad feeling about that cave. Be careful. Don't get hurt. Not that I really care or anything, but we do need you," he said after a moment's hesitation.
"Be safe, General," Bao-Dur told her, before she turned to the entrance and walked inside.
While she was in the cave, she had seen events from her past. Dxun, Alek recruiting the Jedi for the war. They were terrifying in their own right, but then she had seen Kreia, in that room, all Arianne's companions arrayed against her. Worse, the Dark Side was messing with her head, and she couldn't tell whether the visions were real or not. The injuries certainly were.
She shuddered at the memory of the Companion Room, as she thought of it. She didn't want to side with Kreia over the rest of her crew, but she was a firm believer in second chances. She had chosen instead not to fight, and Kreia had told them all to attack her, saying, "Apathy is death." The words still echoed through her mind.
She winced in remembering the way they had attacked her, despite her pleading. She remembered fighting them off, the way they disappeared when she killed them. Then, when she had gotten out of the room, she remembered throwing up, feeling sick with herself because of the things she had been forced to do.
She wandered through the corridors of the tomb, her mind not on the present, slashing at any shyrack she came upon without really paying attention to it. She was too confused and overwhelmed to do that.
She soon came upon a room she hadn't been in yet. She opened the door and saw a cloaked figure standing there. The figure was tall, masked, and mildly terrifying, but she knew who the figure was. It was Revan.
"Why are you here, Revan? I had heard that you went to the Unknown Regions, not to Korriban." The figure responded by activating its lightsaber, a blood-red single blade. She activated her own lightsaber, a silver double blade. The duel commenced.
Arianne spun to the left, swinging her saber for Revan's throat. He blocked the attack easily and counterattacked, aiming for her side. He switched targets at the last second and swung for her head. She ducked and swung her lightsaber in an uppercut. The two traded blows for an indeterminate amount of time, both gaining injuries from the other's lightsaber.
Arianne was exhausted. She needed to stop fighting, but she would die if she did. She called on the Force and tried to stun Revan again, as she had been doing every so often. This time, it finally worked. She knew she couldn't hold him for long, so she went directly for his throat, severing his head from his body and ending the battle. His body disappeared.
She almost collapsed from fatigue right then and there, but she forced herself to keep moving. She needed to get out of this tomb. She didn't know how, though... then she looked around the chamber. There were several doors along the walls. She tried desperately to open them. In some of them, she found wicker baskets of weapons and medpacs, plus other equipment. In one of them, she found another hallway, one that was pitch-black. She ignited her lightsaber for light and followed it.
At the end of the hall she found herself at the entrance to the tomb. Finally, she thought to herself. She was too tired to think anything else. She opened the door. The first thing she saw was a brown jacket, then a pair of arms surrounded her.
"... Atton?" She murmured tiredly.
"It's me. You're safe now." He held her out so he could see her. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, just... tired..." Her eyes closed and she collapsed in his arms.
"Ari? Ari, are you okay?" He looked at her wounds and the dark spots under her eyes. "I'd better get her to that blonde. Hate to say it, but he can probably do more for her than I can. Never was good at healing." He picked her up and carried her back to the Ebon Hawk, into the medbay.
For three days Arianne slept off the events of the tomb, Mical healing her injuries. Atton never left her side in all that time. He didn't sleep, nor did he eat. When she finally woke up, his face was the first thing she saw.
"Hey," he said gently. "Are you okay?"
"Better, I guess... Thank you."
"For what?"
"For being there when I came out of the tomb... I thought you guys would have long since left me. I thought... it felt like I was in there for years."
"You were in there for a long time. I was starting to think..." He hesitated. "I wasn't sure you would come out. I was getting nervous."
"Why? I thought you wanted to leave a long time ago."
"Truth is... I did. A long time ago. Now... I'm not so sure. I don't think I could leave now. I won't be leaving for a long time, I hope."
She was silent for a moment, then she said, "I'd like that. How long was I in the tomb, anyway?"
"Around three days."
She was stunned. "Three days? And you were there that whole time?"
"Yeah. It's not that big a deal."
"It is a big deal. No one else would stay in one place-"
"Any of the others would."
"No, they wouldn't. But you would. Why?"
"Because..." Ugh, women, he thought. Why do they always ask the one question you don't want to answer? He decided to answer the question relatively honestly. "Because I care about you. I don't want you to get hurt."
"That's not the only reason, is it? Atton, if I know one thing about you, it's that you'd never worry about someone you don't love. Is that it? Do you love me?" She asked him gently.
"Yes," he whispered. "I didn't want you to find out. I tried to joke about it..."
"Atton... Why didn't you want me to find out? The thing is, and this is so ridiculous, too," she was grinning like an idiot, "I love you. It's so strange... I've never felt like this before. I like it, though."
He stared at her, his mouth hanging open slightly. "You... you do?" He grinned. "Of course you do. I mean, how couldn't you be madly in love with me? I'm only the most handsome smuggler in the galaxy, after all."
"Cocky scoundrel," she muttered, then giggled. "So I guess, since we both know we're madly in love..." She sat up and pulled his head towards hers. He kissed her gently on the lips.
Finally, he thought. This is how it's supposed to be.
A/N: That got fluffier than even I thought it would... sort of. It's so sappy I could make maple syrup out of it. i kinda like it, though. It's cute. Anyway, I thought of this when I was thinking about Korriban, even though I haven't played the Korriban level of the game in around seven months. I hope you enjoyed it.
To fans of I, Jedi Knight: I'll be starting the rough copy of my next chapter tomorrow. I've decided to do it in both my perspective and Teri's. It'll probably be up in around a week and a half to two weeks.