Hello everyone! I apologize for not being around for nearly a year I have a good reason. But first, let me explain why there has been no new content of "Redemption of the Fallen", Towards the end of the most recent chapter I grew rather bored of the story and couldn't write as much. I took a break, around Mid-April I took back to writing it but it was slow, however in June my harddrive failed and I lost all my stories (unreleased ones that served as good ideas) and from then on I really can't bring myself to write more on it. It will remain on Hiatus until then but I do plan to finish!
This little story kind of came to me and it kept bugging me so I decided to make a story (how long, I don't know). It will not be a standard Reversal of Roles between Revan and Bastila. This will largely be an AU story where the Star Forge DOES NOT exist!
Bastila's Redemption
Description: Refusal to give chase to the Mandalorians leads to consequences. Leaving those who were closest to you can make them your enemies. Revan disappears after slaying Mandalore. Now rejoined with the Jedi, he works to correct his mistakes; hoping it's not too late to save those he holds dear while trying to not let the scars of war further corrupt him the same way it corrupted them. Rated T for now, rating may change.
Chapter 1: Where It Starts
"Revan...of all the Jedi Council could do, they sent only you here for me?" A woman's cold voice inquired. The female didn't bother to turn away from the battle she was seeing from outside the viewport of her bridge. Such a beautiful sight she thought...the vast endlessness of space. The battle was a sight itself but the openness of space was the eye catcher to her. She didn't get a response which only annoyed her and turned her face to the presence she felt.
He was both the same and different. There he stood, Revan. Hero of the Mandalorian Wars. Along with the Exile, he was the only Jedi to return to the Order, and unlike the Exile, he was reinstated and regained his Rank as Jedi Knight. There he stood, looking far more intimidating than any Jedi she'd thus far known and more so than many Dark Jedi. Though once it drove her mad, that infernal Mandalorian mask of his now suited him followed by his dark Jedi Robes with sleeves cut off at the elbow to not get in the way; his forearms covered in armor. Almost identical to how she once saw him during the Mandalorian Wars when he briefly came to visit the Jedi Order.
There was something different though, his presence in the Force was much more heavy…and darker than she last remembered; it was almost as if he too fell to the dark side, but she knew for a fact that he was still a Jedi. Was it because of his experiences in the Mandalorian Wars?
The masked visage gazed back coldly at her, almost mocking her by not answering her question. It drove her insane. "Too scared to reply Revan?"
That seemed to spark a reaction given that the man barely made a move, "No. Not quite, but to answer your earlier question. I'm all that they need."
"Why you impossible..." The woman started before taking a breath and calming herself down. "I'm far more powerful Revan. I've accomplished what you wished for me. You can't stop me."
Revan frowned, "What I wanted was for you to be able to become an accomplished Jedi; to master your unique talents in Battle Meditation. Not forsake all that you held dear, to abandon those who cared for you like family just to join Malak in his foolish conquest to conquer the Republic. It's not too late Bastila."
He couldn't see the young woman's face behind her hood, but he could feel her conflicting emotions. "I am no longer Bastila, Revan. I will kill you here and now since you were foolish enough to face me directly then Lord Malak and I will destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy." With her words said, Bastila grabbed her dual bladed lightsaber from her belt, igniting it with two crimson blades sprouting out of its hilts.
"Malak will long since have killed you before the Republic falls. But…you are right...you are not Bastila. You killed her and for that, I will kill you." Revan responded darkly. He had never fully shaken the influence the Dark Side held over him since the Mandalorian Wars. He was able to keep its influence from corrupting him, but he was no longer the young idealistic young man that went to war to protect the innocent.
"You don't speak the words of a Jedi, Revan. You hold a personal stake in this. What do you want?" Bastila narrowed her eyes at the masked man before falling into her stance, Holding her blades at a slight angle in front of her.
"I came here hoping that the young girl I grew up with, who was everything to me was still in there somewhere. I see now it was just wishful thinking, but I must stop you; if only because the Princess I knew couldn't live with herself knowing she'd do this." Revan's voice, despite being muffled, almost seemed broken in defeat. He activated his own lightsaber, a Cyan color, pointing it at the young woman who he once knew.
"If only you'd have seen what Malak had seen in the Unknown Regions, Revan, you'd do what he was doing as well."
"I was tired of all the fighting. I still am. You were but a child, so you don't know the horrors of war that Malak and I have seen." He could feel the anger in Bastila, he knew the day he left her at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant that she would disagree with his decision to leave her behind. So much so that she may break their friendship off, but to fall to the Dark Side and follow Malak caught him completely by surprise.
He didn't return immediately when the Mandalorians were defeated. Malak had insisted that he should join him to chase them off into the unknown regions. He decided against it. He had heard the words that came from Mandalore in his dying breath. He relayed them to Malak. He knew chasing the Mandalorians was a façade. He could have joined him. But he was so tired. Thankfully so right now thinking back on it. Would he'd have fallen to the Dark Side if he joined Malak in the Unknown Regions? Would his position be reversed with Bastila?
No, it was no use in dealing with what-ifs. This woman, once the source of all his joy and happiness was now his mortal enemy by principle of his and the Jedi's belief. She was taking innocent lives and plotting to kill more in her desire to rule the galaxy. This would hurt him immensely to do this.
He saw the faint outline of her mouth twist into a snarl, it's been years since he'd last seen Bastila, even longer since they last trained together. But hopefully her tendency to lash out when her anger was risen. She was always easy to get a rise out of; once a source of enjoyment.
With only but a moment's notice, Bastila made a Force empowered dash towards Revan, spinning her saber staff above her head in an attempt to take his head clean off. Revan quickly righted his saber vertically and raised it to intercept the dual blades, stopping their motion. He gave up some of his ground in the blade lock, bringing his knee forward to Bastila's stomach.
"Always too narrow minded. You fail to take in your surroundings or anything but the duel." Revan taunted, his voice similar to that of a teacher teaching his student who had made a mistake in practice. He moved away from the stumbling woman who was bent over clutching at her stomach with her left hand. "It leaves you open."
"You think this is a training session!? I'm trying to kill you!" Bastila yelled, her anger rising steadily, drawing more from the Dark Side.
"I was once your teacher as I assisted in developing your Battle Meditation. On top of that it wasn't uncommon for me to train with you." Revan explained, all signs of teasing gone from his voice.
"You made me call you 'Master' even though you were only 6 years older than me and only a Knight!" At that, Revan couldn't help but smile underneath his mask. The memory was a fond one that he and Malak had laughed at when they heard Bastila call him 'Master', she was so furious when she found out it was in fact, not required.
Revan didn't respond but instead shot his hand forward, using the Force to send an invisible wave towards the female Dark Lord who easily threw up barriers to protect herself. The only real damage it did was make her hood fall down from her head. Revan's gaze widened slightly. What he had believed to be an abomination compared to the young woman he once knew was in actuality somewhere in between.
Her dark brown hair, once held in pigtails was now held in a loose ponytail, with a few bang coming down to frame her face and fall over her forehead. Her skin was slightly paler than what he remembered. He wasn't quite sure if it was due to her immersion in the Dark Side as she had always had pale skin and it had been some time since he'd last seen her. Her eyes however were a different story. Once a soft grey, they were now a fiery, almost sickening yellow.
"You've grown beautiful."
Bastila's gaze widened in slight shock at the sudden compliment before narrowing angrily, "Compliments won't save you!" she deactivated her saberstaff, tossing it up in the air, quickly throwing her hands forward, unleashing a torrent of Force Lightning. Revan wasn't able to react in time and was hit full force; sending him flying into the far wall of the Bridge.
'I had heard of Force Lightning. Some of the darkest powers wielding with the Dark Side. To think she could use it.' Revan thought, following the relent of the lightning, allowing his body to slump down onto the floor. He gazed on as the woman caught her falling lightsaber, reactivating it, twirling it before holding it behind her back at an angle as she walked menacingly towards him. 'You have grown strong'.
Revan called his lightsaber back to his hand as he shakily got up. He'd never seen Force Lightning before and now he was cautious as to what other unknown abilities Bastila had attained in the last 5 years. He was careless, and he wouldn't be so again.
"I hope I didn't hurt you too bad, Revan. I want the 2nd round of our bout to be a challenge." Bastila taunted with false concern, a wicked grin showing on her face. The grin looked so out of place on her face.
"I had to give you one free shot, It wouldn't fair to you otherwise if I didn't give you a handicap." Revan held out his arms, taunting Bastila to rush at him, not even having activated his own lightsaber yet. Bastila took the bait, lashing out again gripping her staff with both her hands, bringing her blade around to slash upwards. Revan ducked easily; countering by activating his own lightsaber and slicing part of the young woman's saber staff. "One blade down, Bastila. You sure you still want to continue?"
Bastila took a glance at the damage done to her saberstaff. He completely sliced off the emitter of her blade, leaving the housing exposed and the secondary crystal showing. She still had her other blade and as a whole, still had a mostly intact hilt, "I am more than capable with a single blade Revan." Narrowing her eyes angrily at the implication she was inadequate with a single blade.
"Of course, hope you can readjust quick." Revan commented as he moved in for a strike, cleaving towards Bastila's legs, probing her defenses with a single blade. She may now be down on raw offensive, but now she could more easily defend and, as a whole, could now be more agile in her defenses.
The fight dragged on for several minutes, each with Revan's strike becoming more and more aggressive and slowly cutting down on Bastila's defenses. Bastila was in turn was clearly becoming frustrated at being unable to mount a counter offense and on the few times she was able to attack, Revan had been able to casually able to deflect her strike or sidestep.
"Why…" Bastila broke away from the blade lock she quickly found herself in, backing up before striking at Revan relentlessly. "...can't…" another strike, her face becoming more red with fury, "…I…HIT…YOU!?" More strikes with each word, each striking becoming sloppier and over extended.
At the last strike, Bastila changed it to a stab, one which Revan deflected, before tripping Bastila onto the ground; falling gracelessly face first.
"Perhaps you never wanted to hit me. Perhaps because despite your immersion in the Dark Side, you are not powerful enough to defeat me. The Dark Side is not necessarily more powerful than the Light. I of all people know this."
Bastila raised herself off the ground slightly, leaning on her hands and knees as she tried to get up before she sneered at Revan. "What could you know?! You ran from battle! The chance to help Malak!" She got to her feet and charged Revan again.
She was so blinded by her anger that she failed to see Revan's sword arm disappear with speed; her slash doing nothing as she failed to relied he slice the way the remaining emitter to her blade before he kneed her again in the stomach. One moment she felt such pain, then the next she could feel the crushing feeling of Revan gripping her whole body in the Force. Such destructive power. If she wasn't currently on the receiving end she would have been excited by such a display by him.
"Why don't you wake up?!" Revan snapped, his own anger at the events starting to show, he pushed Bastila against the wall opposite of the viewport, his grip through the Force tightening, not paying mind to the pain he was causing her. He deactivated his lightsaber, replacing it on his belt before he took his mask off; revealing his own upset face to her. "Are you so pathetic you willingly blind yourself to what true around you?! The Bastila I knew would never have stooped so low; to scramble for such temporary power. I can feel the fear rolling off you and it's almost laughable. At one point you would have never felt such fear, instead meeting the challenge head on, even if you were already defeated."
Once, several years ago, he had heard that Bastila had gotten into trouble with some of the other Padawans. Apparently they were taunting her with her then-lack of significant talent and ganged up on her. She was upset, understandably so. He was too, to a degree. They were a year or two older than her and were farther along in their training and decided to pick on someone who was more green.
Nevertheless. He was already a Jedi Knight at the time and the Masters charged him to punish Bastila since she reacted physically, lashing out. He would appropriately discipline both parties.
Five against one. Hardly fair. Everyone had a training saber and the most one would get was a painful shock. The challenge was for Bastila to land one hit against every one of them without getting hit herself. If one of them got hit, they were considered 'dead' and out of the match. However, if Bastila was hit she would then lose as well. All things considered, since Bastila had, at the point, not yet started focusing on combat training, held her own quite well; likely due to his tutoring her on the side of her actual teachings. She had managed to hold all five of them at bay and even managed, albeit with great effort on her part, to hit two of them; thereby eliminating them from the match.
Sadly this is where Bastila was overwhelmed as exhaustion coupled with being outnumbered brought about her defeat as a training saber that passed unnoticed by her hit her right across the right cheek, cracking her lip in the process. She lost.
Revan could almost feel the anger he felt then when he saw the young girl fall to the ground in defeat, a hand clutching at the wound on her face. Though he felt a certain amount of pride in that she held off 5 older Padawans and took out two of them and even despite being on the ground nursing the small wound, she only stared down the three remaining Padawans with a calm gaze; giving no indication she was afraid.
He wasn't sure if her staring down the remaining Padawans had set them off or they were looking to further her 'punishment' as they all surrounded her and started repeatedly hitting her with the training sabers.
If they weren't both prospective Jedi and children, Revan swore he would have likely killed them; or severely maim them. "Enough!" He yelled; letting the anger show in his voice to catch the Padawans' attention. Immediately they had stopped and looked on him with fear. It allowed him a small view of the prone Bastila who fell unconscious from the continuous shocks and blunt force of the training sabers.
He used the Force to push the children out of the way; not harmfully, but forcefully. He walked to the young girl to check to make sure she wasn't severely injured. Content he picked her up and set her at the wall of the training room before he faced the group of children.
"You have won. However, you were instructed to stop the instant a hit was landed on Bastila. You disobeyed my orders. You must now face me. Same rules apply except I will have no weapon." At 20 years old Revan seemed to be a wizened older man to him with how harshly he was speaking to them, but they were only put off by his tone briefly as they all too eagerly charged him. They quickly learned their lesson and from what he heard they grew up and even apologized to Bastila at one point; becoming half-decent Jedi in the process.
Revan gave a slight shake of his head to erase the memory from his mind as he stared at the corrupted woman who was still held in his crushing grasp. He felt the ship rumble and Revan cursed under his breath. He wasn't sure how long he was caught up in his reminiscence, but apparently the ship was under heavy fire and Bastila had long since passed out from the pain. He lessened his grip bringing the woman into his physical grasp.
Strange. While unconscious she almost seemed peaceful and one wouldn't think she was Malak's apprentice. For whatever rest her unconsciousness brought her, she did so quite soundly for someone who was responsible for the deaths of millions. He sensed the disturbance in the Force before he could even see it; only barely turning to see turbolasers coming towards the bridge of Bastila's flagship.
Everything went white…then black.
That will mark the end of the first chapter of this little story. Now to give you readers a better idea of what I'm going for with Revan. This is a Revan, up to killing Mandalore, is the same as he's depicted in the Legends Continuity. He is a man scarred by war and struggles to stay steady in the Light but it's clear that he's forever changed by his exposure to the Dark Side. Therefore he will show large amounts of callousness, coldness, a utilitarian mindset, and even cruelty. Nonetheless he is first and foremost a decent person and will not go out of his way to be such.
I hope you guys like this little side story to keep you going. Know that this chapter will be under future edits, and the I have another story I am working on as well behind the scenes (but I'm wanting to have it at 40+ thousand words before I start releasing it, I'm at 28,000 now) I hope I can start working on "Redemption of the Fallen" again, but working on a big next installment of the chapter just to lose it all is not very motivating. Anyways, if you liked the story feel free to favorite and leave a review. If you have any suggestions or fixes I need to make leave those in the review as well or shoot them my way in a PM. I'll be sure to answer it! I'll see you later!