Cassisk Deks - who preferred to be called Cass by friends - former Master of the Sith, Darth Revan - and former up and coming prodigy of the jedi order - woke with a bang as the sound of loud explosion filled the air. He shook his head and sat up realizing he was stripped to his underclothes and his lightsaber was not at his side. A loud explosion rocked the floor and he scowled at the general situation he was in. He frowned as he remembered what the council had tried to do, what they wanted him to didn't know that the blocks he had placed on the innermost parts of his memories and knowledge - his mind - made the false identity they tried to give him break against them. But their attempt to breach his mind did do something to his memories, his safeguards triggered when they got a bit too close and forcefully lobotomized the location of the Star Forge and where exactly the star maps were from his mind.

And of something else... he wasn't sure what.

But the most important thing was there, he knew who he was.

He was a Sith Lord.

He was a Jedi Master.

And it was long time since he had accepted both sides of the force wholeheartedly.

He got up and to his feet when the floor rolled and tilted sideways again.

He awkwardly staggered and growled, "Great, this is just what I needed..."

At that moment, a republic soldier came running through the doors that hissed open.

'Here we go...' Cassisk thought.

After a hasty introduction to a republic soldier name Trask Ulgo and quick suit up in some natural clothing and arming himself with a short sword and blaster, Cassisk was more or less ready to go. He frowned at the insubstantial weapons he had on hand but he had made it through bad situations with worse equipment. If he was extremely lucky and the Force was especially generous, he might get a chance to grab a lightsaber or a vibrosword at the very most. Cass went with Trask to get to the bridge and hopefully collect Bastila.

There was a burst transmission from an admiral named Carth Onasi, warning the two that the ship was beginning to critically fail. Mentally noting this, Cass barely made it through the second doorway since he woke up before he saw Sith and Republic soldiers trading fire in front. The two republic soldiers were gunned down and the Sith turned their focus onto Trask and Cassisk.

"These Sith must be the advance boarding party!" Trask roared as he charged, "For the Republic!"

The incognito force-user fought the urge to facepalm, could there be a more cliche line?

For trained soldiers though, they weren't even a match for a Jedi Master/Sith Lord. Weaving through the lasers, Cassisk stretched out his hand and tweaked the panel on the wall next to Sith and made it explode. As the Sith recoiled from the sudden explosion, Cassisk dashed in and slashed quickly in quick succession, killing both of the soldiers. He inwardly sighed in discontent, for all that he had claimed the mantle of a sith, he still placed a great deal of value on his jedi teachings, and hated having to take life like this. He began to search the dead men and grabbed their credit chips and took a longsword off the body on one soldier.

"I wish I had my lightsaber..." Cassisk muttered mostly to himself, running his hand through his jet black hair, "Make my life easier."

"You had a lightsaber?" Trask inquired, "You're a jedi?"

'Damn me and my stupid tendency to think aloud when I am too preoccupied.' Cass groaned in his head as he gave a single nod.

"Where is it?"

Cass sighed, "Broken and I left it behind, I needed to find a replacement, not that I hope anyone dies, but if there is a lightsaber lying around a body, I am taking it."

Trask nodded somewhat stiffly at that.

They battled their way through the halls as they dispatched more sith, scavenging their bodies for weapons and credits that they could use later. Vibroblade and vibrosword in hand, the two approached the bridge when they came to a hall where two force-users were battling with lightsabers. The force whispered a warning and Cass waited, focusing on the fighters and their weapons. Trask looked like he wanted to rush to the jedi's help, but knew he would only get in the way. The jedi managed to spear the sith through the chest and the sith gasped, his lightsaber slipping from his grasp.

'Now!' Thought Cass fiercely, stretching his hand out.

The metal handgrip of the lightsaber flew from the dying sith's hand and shot through the air to smack into Cass' palm. Just as Cass caught it, a loud explosion erupted from in front of him and Trask, knocking them to the floor. Cass heard a cry from the female jedi and swiftly forced himself through the haze of disorientation and rushed to her downed form. He gently lifted her and checked her neck for a pulse. He was vaguely aware of Trask getting to his feet to stand by him.

There was nothing that pulsed under his fingers and the light that the jedi glimmered with was already fading from his perceptions.

Cass closed his eyes in a act of melancholy acceptance.

Just then, two Sith soldiers arrived and began to open fire. Trask stiffened and dove out of the way, but Cass raised his left hand and the multiple blaster bolts froze in the air, humming quietly. The two sith began to back away in fear as they realized they just attacked a jedi who was able to stop their bolts with ease. Cass made a flicking motion with his fingers and the blaster bolts flew back and struck the sith, killing them instantly. Trask looked in awe at the kneeling jedi before blinking at the solemn expression on his face as he slid the dead jedi's eyes closed and stood up. The dead jedi's sparking lightsaber floated up and clipped itself to Cass' belt. Cass quickly and quietly strapped the vibrosword he had been using to his back.

"We should go." Cass said quietly, a red bar of plasma erupting from his newly acquired lightsaber, "The ship won't last much longer."

They stormed the bridge -which was practically a war-zone between republic and sith troops - and Cass sliced his way through two Sith before the front of the bridge exploded, killing the soldiers battling and knocking the two men down once again.

When Trask got up he gingerly felt his head and swiped at a trickle of blood that was dripping form a scrape on his forehead, "Bastila isn't here! She's probably gone to the escape pods!"

Cass nodded and they ran to the next corridor.

Trask walked to the door and opened it only to be faced with a dark jedi who was twirling a double-bladed lightsaber.

'Malak's apprentice!' Cass snarled in his head as lightning crackled down his hand.

"Shit, a dark jedi!" Trask gasped - not seeing the lightning - before scowling and readying his vibroblade in hand, "Go on without me!"

Cass was about to protest but Trask stepped forward and the door slid to close behind him and exploded, melting itself closed. The ship listed to the right and even from there, he felt Trask's life begin to fade.

Cass gaped at Trask's actions before scowling, "You damn fool."

Cass ran through the door to the pods.

Carth radioed him to tell him he was the last republic soldier alive on the ship and he needed to hurry. With that sobering knowledge, Cass stormed his way to the escape pods, forcing his way through the opposition with the power and finesse of a Jedi master who was focused on a single goal and was willing to destroy anything in his way. When soldiers tried to stop them he either roasted them with lightning, smashed them aside with a sharp wave of his hand, or sliced through them. When he arrived at the pods, Carth turned to him before going white and backing away from him pausing only to point his blaster and aim at him.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Carth growled as he squeezed off several shots.

Cass carefully deflected them off to the side, scowling in realization, "I am not a Sith! I am a Jedi!"

Carth paused, "You're using a red lightsaber, do you think I am blind?"

"Mine was damaged and I had to use this," Cass growled angrily, gesturing to the damaged blade at his waist, "I didn't have much in the way of choice! We need to go, NOW!"

Carth blinked and scowled but decided the man did have a point as they dove into the escape pod. It ejected from the ship mere moments before the Endar Spire was engulfed in flames and fell towards the planet.

"You're not a Sith?" Carth inquired suspiciously, hand still gripping his gun in a white-knuckled grip.

"No." sighed Cass triedly, clipping the lightsaber to his belt, "I'm not. While I was fighting, an explosion happened next to me and the force of it shorted out my lightsaber when I tried to turn it on. The sith that was killed had dropped his and so I grabbed it and began using it. I was fortunate enough that the design was similar enough to my own so that I wasn't struggling to flip it on. I guess I didn't consider how it would look. I'm sorry."

Cass didn't want to lie to Carth, but at this point it was the better option and would help him be more natural around him while acting as a jedi/sith around others.

Besides, Carth could probably help him find Bastila and he needed all the help he could get.

Carth stared at him as though to see if he could sense any deception before relaxing slightly, "I see... Sorry about attacking you then."

Cass waved a hand, "No, it's totally fine. It should have been expected really. There wasn't much time to change or deal with the color of my lightsaber so it was understandable."

Just then the escape pod bucked as it entered the atmosphere of the planet and Cass' head was slammed into the wall, knocking him out.

Cass was dreaming of his last moments as the Sith Lord.

He remembered the burning pain of the explosions and him weakly lifting off his now cracked and smoking mask to see Bastila's face with his own eyes.

He wanted her to be the last thing he saw.

"Hey Bas..." He whispered weakly, smiling softly at her distressed expression, "Good to see you..."

"Cass?" She whispered in slight awe, her clothing singed and cheek stained with soot, "Your eyes... they aren't yellow..."

He choked out a coughing chuckle, lifting a hand to touch her cheek gently, "Scared you? 'M sorry."

She held out her hand and closed her eyes, there was a surge in the force and Cass wounds began to slowly scab over and heal.

"Bas..!" He gasped at the feel the force screaming a warning at him, " Leave me behind...You need to go, the ship'll blow, you need -"

He felt something warm, connecting to -

"Damn the ship! You're not dying on me and I am not going without you!" She growled, tears in her eyes and her face scrunched up in frustrated pain and anger, "Why didn't you come back to the order?! I waited for you to come home you idiot!"

Cass felt himself slipping, weakly grasping at her arm, "Bas... go..."

He was swept away as he felt himself begin to float up in the air.

Cass woke with a start, something painful burning behind his eyes. He slowly sat up and squeezed his eyes shut as he pushed the phantom pains of his memories to the back of his head.

The agonized look on Bastila's face would haunt him till he saw her again.

"Hey, go easy on yourself." A familiar voice said, "You hit your head pretty hard, I had to drag you into this apartment from the pod. Barely got clear in time."

Cass blinked his eyes and looked at Carth who was sitting on a chair next his bed, "Carth Onasi? I owe you one, thanks."

Carth waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, "Don't mention it, I haven't left anyone behind before, I don't intend to start now or anytime soon. Here, catch."

Carth tossed a lightsaber at Cass who caught it, "Ah. Thanks. So, mind telling me what's going on?"

Carth leaned against the table in the middle of the room they were in and crossed his arms, "We are on Taris. Apparently all of the republic escape pods crashed here in various areas and we got lucky to land here. The sith have the whole planet under lockdown, they are all looking for any trace of Bastila. If they find her, things are going to go from bad to worse for the republic in a heartbeat."

A surge of protective anger washed through Cass, "What do they want with her?"

Carth gave Cass a puzzled look, "Don't you know? Man, that hit to your head did more than I thought. The sith want Bastila for her Battle Meditation, it's an ability to inspire her allies and make her foes lose faith through the force. Invaluable and battle and can totally change the tides of a fight if she uses it in time. Problem with Endar Spire was the attack was too fast for her to concentrate and use it in time to help us out. Still, we got lucky."

Cass sat up and lit the lightsaber to observed the glowing red blade, "In that case, I should probably keep this lightsaber the way it is for now."

Carth frowned at him, "Why?"

Cass turned to him, clipping the lightsaber back to his belt as he stood up "Dark jedi use red lightsabers, right? With this, we can pose as Sith and no one would bat an eye."

Carth nodded slightly at that, "That's true... no one would be able to tell. Smart."

Cass smirked, "Thanks. But if I am going to pull this off, I am going to half to be... well act more sith-like."

Carth frowned at that but subsided at the logic.

They couldn't afford any mistakes if they wanted to find Bastila.

"We should get moving, if we can get to Bas-s-stila first, we can make sure the sith don't get her." Cass stuttered slightly as he mentally kicked himself for nearly using her nickname.

Carth face became more solemn and nodded, "Right. I did a bit of scouting while you were out and got a decent idea of where most of the pods landed. From what I gathered, they crashed mostly into the planet floor, called the undercity. We can use this apartment to base out of while looking for her."

"Alright." Cass said, "While looking, we also should see if any opportunities for extra credits might present themselves. It's not a priority, but credits will probably go a long way in in helping us get through the city."

Carth checked his blasters and stood up, "Let's go."

It was just their luck that they stepped out into the halls to see a sith officer flanked by two droids yelling at two aliens.

"This is a raid, you alien scum!" He roared, "Get against the wall!"

"You sith raided us yesterday!" An alien protested indignantly, "They didn't find anything then, why do keep -"

He didn't get to say anything more as a blaster bolt from the sith officer's rifle hit him in the chest.

"Does anyone else have any smart-aleck remarks to say to -" The officer began when his eyes drifted to Cass and Carth.

Cass was already holding his saber while Carth gripped the handles of his guns.

"Humans? Hiding among this alien filth?" The office pondered before his eyes widened with dawning realization, "They're republic fugitives! Get them!"

Cass swirled and the lightsaber ignited with a 'snap-hiss' as it sliced through the droids in front the officer who stumbled back in shock. Carth blasted the officer off his feet with several precise shots.

"Nice." Cass commented appreciatively as he deactivated his lightsaber and twirled it in his hand before he returned it to his belt.

Carth shrugged.

The duros was kneeling next to his fallen friend and shook his head sadly, "Poor Igxil. He was always too brave for his own good."

"Will you be okay?" Cass inquired, "Won't the sith come looking for the bodies?"

The duros shook his head, "I will hide the bodies so it looks like they were never here. Thank you for your assistance."

Cass shrugged at that, "It's fine. We need to get moving as it is."

After a quick looting of the corpses, we crossed walked down the hallway until we got to the exit and stepped out into the sunlight.