Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, they are from KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) the Xbox game. This goes for all six of these one shots.
Dantooine; the old, familiar plains had not changed since the last time Carth Onasi had stepped through them, despite the harsh times it had suffered during the Jedi Civil War
Dantooine; the old, familiar plains had not changed since the last time Carth Onasi had stepped through them, despite the harsh times it had suffered during the Jedi Civil War. He took a deep breath as he looked around the fields where he investigated for the former Jedi council along side his companion. There was a small gust of wind as he looked down from the cliff he sat upon. Carth had never thought he would return to this place, it was too painful for him to be here, to remember what he lost years ago. Dantooine was the world of the Jedi, but to him, it was the world of his Jedi; the Jedi that left him to venture into the darkness and protect those she loved. Carth sighed heavily.
"Revan…" The sun shone directly into Carth's eyes, but he didn't look away or even feel the glare. The yearning feeling in his chest become so much, that there was no other feelings he could muster. Revan had been gone for ten years now; not one word on whether or not she was alive or dead, nor one sighting of her.
The day was now over and he was no step closer to finding out where she could have disappeared to in the darkness. That was the only reason he had returned to this world, to find the Jedi in charge and demand answers as to where Revan could have gone. This plan had failed, since the Jedi in charge was Bastila, who knew nothing more of where Revan could have gone that Carth himself knew. There was a cry in the distance, Carth listened closely, it was a kath hound, probably lost from its pack, or wounded. The cry was all too familiar to Carth; it was the cry his heart made every moment of every day without Revan. The kath hound cried again even louder, more painful; the sound sent a chill down his spine as he motioned to stand up.
"The cry is too close to home, is it not?" Carth stopped in his motion; could this be the voice he was so longing to hear or could it be yet another one of his attempts to feel closer to that whom he has lost? Carth paused and took in a sharp breath as his ears perked for another word, just one sound from that voice.
"What do you mean?" The voice hadn't said a word, nor made a noise, but Carth wasn't ready to have it leave him again. He had thought maybe it would want him to answer, so Carth closed his eyes in order to picture the face that went with that voice. A noise came from behind him, as if a foot moved and kicked a small rock over. Carth's heart stopped beating for a moment.
"That cry of pain, loneliness. It's a sound I think the both of us would know, Carth." His name had never sounded so beautiful as it did when she spoke it. Carth turned around, almost afraid to open his eyes, but when he did, he was not disappointed. There she was, standing before him; her body seemed almost feeble in its stance. As if her own weight was too much for her to lift. Carth wanted to run and grab her, but felt that if he moved, she would disappear and he would be left with the feeling of emptiness he had been suffering from for the past ten years.
"Revan…" Her eyes moved away from the distant kath hound's cry and turned back to Carth, but there was something different. The bright color he had remembered was no longer there, instead there was only a dull gray color; her beautiful face was badly scarred, but that was not what turned Carth's blood cold. When he looked closely, he could see that this was not his Revan in front of him, but the one people were told to fear. "No…" She looked deep into his eyes and smirked slightly, but not a happy smirk. It was a malicious smirk.
"What, Carth? Did you honestly expect anything less?" Carth looked on at Revan and could feel his heart break into a thousand pieces, the woman he loved, had turned back over to the dark side. He had left her to fight the evil all alone and now she had come back how he feared she would, and how she promised she would not.
"Revan… no. I can't believe this. This can't be happening." Carth shook his head; there was no way he could let the one he loved fall to the dark side again, especially not after all the good she had done for the Republic. He took a deep breath as he looked into her eyes again, but she was barely there. He wasn't sure who he was looking at now.
"Carth, you have to understand. If I were to follow the Jedi Code, we could never truly be together; we would forever be kept apart from their stupid rules of not embracing feelings. Now we can be together without the Jedi interfering. We can finally love one another." The promise of being able to love one another was what Carth had been dying to hear for ten years now. Since the moment she turned from him and boarded the Ebon Hawk, Carth wanted nothing more than to hold her and love her, but even now, he could not. She was not the Revan he had fallen in love with, but was the Revan he had hated for so long. She looked on at him pleadingly, as if she needed his love, and though he wanted nothing more than to give it to her, he was going to keep his promise to her and protect the Republic, even from her.
"This isn't you. Revan, this is not who you are, not anymore. You changed, you changed for the better and it's not too late to return to what you were. What I loved." It almost killed Carth to turn away from the love Revan was offering him, but he had no other choice. The Revan he loved would not want him to give into the dark side, even if she had. Revan's gray eyes turned dark as her expression fell. "Revan, please. Come back to the light, be with me." In one swift motion, Revan had he light saber out and prepared to fight. Carth paused for a moment, he could not kill her, there was no way, Carth would die by her hand before he raised his blaster to her.
"Carth… listen to me. I know of the Jedi better than you ever could, and they would never allow us to be together. This is our only way, join me. We can take over the galaxy together and be together, but we can not be together if we are to be slaves to the light. I will not change, for this is who I am, either you can love me now, or die." Who was this standing before him? Carth could feel his entire world crashing around him at the thought that she was no longer the Revan she had become on their journey. Carth shook his head.
"I will not allow you to destroy the Republic that I have worked so hard on saving." Carth could feel the hot tears in his eyes, but he pushed them back to remain strong. His pain would have to wait, right now; he had to deal with Darth Revan. She nodded.
"If that is how you wish this to end. I will kill you quickly." She paused and waited for his reponse, but Carth could only think of one thing to say.
"You have already killed me slowly." There was a flash of regret in Revan's eyes as she lifted her red light saber to strike against Carth, who had no intention of protecting himself. He died the moment Revan had turned to the dark side, because without her he was nothing. As the light saber made its way toward Carth, he remembered Revan just as she was before she left him; pained for leaving him and good. Then, there was a whirring sound ahead of him, as Carth pulled himself from his memories, he could see Bastila's yellow light saber pushing back the red light saber of Revan.
"Leave now, Revan." Bastila's voice was so strong and angry, that it had seemed more like something Revan would have said. Instead, Revan only smirked and pushed herself away from Bastila and with one quick glance to Carth she departed.
Carth stood on the cliff, where not an hour before he had been wishing to see Revan, now he was only wishing to not have seen her and wished he had died years ago. Now his mission had changed from protecting the Republic from dark Jedi to protecting the Republic from the one he loved. Carth fell to the ground, but could not muster up tears. There would never be enough tears for him to cry out his pain. Instead he begged the Force to bring back his Revan.