Malak's Chance
Walking down the dark passageway towards Malak seemed like the longest thing I had ever done. So long that it felt like I wasn't moving anywhere at all, and I had no companions to distract me.
I had long since left them, I had to, it was for their own good. They wouldn't have really been able to help me with the up coming danger, funny I can still remember the protests of my fellow crew mates most of all Carth's.
He had argued long and hard about this, about facing Malak alone, but I had stood my ground and told him that it was something I had to do by myself, that I was the only one who could face Malak.
'Revan before we go out into the Star Forge there is something I need to tell you.' Carth said as he pulled me into an empty room.
'What is it Carth.' I asked curious as to why he had suddenly needed to speak with me. 'And I'm not Revan so stop called me that.'
'Sorry Leah' he said my name as if there was something wrong with it. Fair enough that it wasn't my birth name but I liked it, and I had enough reminders of my past without having that name.
'Don't worry about it too much Carth. Now what was it that-' I was suddenly cut off in mid sentence by Carth wrapping his arms around my waist and pressing his body against mine. I felt my face flush a deep red, that I am sure almost blended in with my blood red hair, at how close we were. His face was so close that I could feel his warm breath upon my skin.
'Leah... I don't know the best way to say this but... I love you. And... And I'd like to give you a reason to live after Malak.' He whispered in my ear. 'I want to... I need to protect you Leah.' I could hear the need to do this in his voice as he said it.
Barely moving a muscle, I put Carth in Statis. It hurt to have to do that to him but I knew that it wasn't going to be easy for us… if there was an 'us', after the Star Forge.
'Sorry Carth, but this is the only way. Talk to me again when this is all over.' I said quietly as a single tear fell down my cheek.
That was the last time I saw Carth, I knew that by now if one of the other Jedi hadn't found him that my statis field would finally have worn off. I also knew that when I got back he was going to give me a lecture of the century, but that wasn't something that was important to me at the moment. Malak is my main and only goal at the moment, nothing else can happen until I have dealt with him because there is no way that I am going to make the galaxy have to deal with my mistake. I have left it for too long already. Then a cold steel door of the Star Forge opened up in front of me and standing right behind it was Malak.
"Ahh, Revan. I should have known that you would have been able to get past the defences of the Star Forge." He said with that dry mechanical voice, the same one that he has had since I cut his lower jaw right off his face. That caused a slight shiver craw up my spine. To think I could cause so much pain, so much damage with a single swing of my lightsaber.
"Yes you should have. You also should have known that I would come back for you, because..." My voice got caught in my throat. "Because you were my best friend and because I loved you."
"You never loved me, Revan." Malak snickered. "You're only love was war, and the trill of the battle." His mechanical voice chuckled at me.
"I was planning to capture you alive, Revan, but your darkside power is strong. I can not let you leave here alive." The glow of a crimson red lightsaber suddenly lit the room. Then it was upon me almost before I could get my own lightsaber lit.
The battle was long, or at least it seemed long to me. Probably because of all the memories that continued to surface as I fought Malak.
"Draw your lightsaber my apprentice." The dark voice said. Across the room I saw a figure pull something from their belt and stand in a defensive stance with the thing held out in front of them.
"Good. Now fight me! See if you can hold your own against a Sith Lord!"
The memory played out in front of me like I was there reliving it. That's when I noticed, Malak was fighting the same as he was in the memory. Perfect, I thought. Using this to my advantage, I dodged – blocked – and countered every one of his moves. When there was a break in the fighting I took the chance to try talking to Malak again.
"Malak listen to me. Turn away from the darkside; can't you see that it's destroying you?" I said trying my hardest to get through of the darkside energy that clouded his mind to where I knew the real Malak must still be. "Come back with me, we can forget the Jedi and Sith. Just come back with me."
I felt emotions bubbling up inside of me, emotions that I had never felt before meeting Carth Onasi. Damn that fly boy.
"Master, come look what I have done for you."
I looked up that the younger Malak, the one that still had his bottom jaw in place. He handed me something wrapped in brown fabric. Pulling off the fabric I found what appeared to be a rounded piece of metal.
"What is it?" I asked as I held it up, examining it.
"It is a mask, Lord Revan. Made from the dark side itself."
"Yes, I can feel the power flowing through it. Why did you make this, Malak?"
"W-well I heard the comment you made the other day... a-about being unable to command the proper respect from the troops. I-I thought that maybe if they couldn't see your feminine traits then m-maybe they... then maybe they would listen to you better..."
"Excellent. You aren't so useless after all, my apprentice. You have done something right for once. Now leave me, I wish to be alone."
"O-of course, my master." And with that Malak left.
"Do you remember now Revan." He spat my name like it was poison on somebody's tongue. "Do you remember it? You're the one that led me to the dark side. You used me to get what you wanted. I was the apprentice and you were the master."
That's when it hit me. His anger, his hatred, they were all my fault. I had caused it all, I was the reason why worlds have been destroyed, Dantooine, Taris, and Telos. They were destroyed because of something I had started, someone that was willing to do anything I wanted.
"M-Malak, I-I didn't mean to... I-"
"Your words are nothing to me Revan. But maybe you would like to explain it to your crew." Malak said in a tormenting way. He flicked his wrist and a large metal panel moved out from behind him revealing the crew of the Ebon Hawk.
"How can you trust this... woman? She was a Sith! She IS Darth Revan!" Carth yelled, he was angry. The betrayal that he must have felt, it was... unimaginable.
"No, I'm not that person. I can't be..." I said more to myself than anyone else. I was having a hard time believing that I could be Revan, the same Revan that had killed millions of people, that was a sith.
"I don't see a sith lord standing here, Carth. I see a friend that has been with us through thick and thin. A friend that has been a help to everyone she has meet over the past months." Mission snapped at Carth. They were the only people that seemed to really be in this argument.
'Mission is right. We are who we are now; our past is that for a reason. The mistakes that were made cannot be fixed but we can make up for them by learning from them and doing the right thing next time around.' Zaalbar barked.
"If you think about it..." Juhani said, speaking up for the first time since this had started. "If you think, where would we all be at the moment if we hadn't meet Leah?"
I looked at each of my crew members as they stood there, chained in place so it was impossible to move.
"Malak!" I said suddenly angry. "This is your last chance! Surrender!"
"Arh. That's the Revan I used to know." Malak said raising his blade. "One of us will die here Revan, and it shall be you!"
"Then I'm not going down without a fight!" I yelled, using the force to leap into the air and bring my blade down upon Malak.
"Revan! Revan!"
"What is the reason for this interruption?"
"It's the Jedi-"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"The Jedi they have managed to board your ship, they're on their way here now."
"Frack. Get yourself and everybody else out of here. I'll deal with the Jedi."
"But... Revan..."
"No buts, I sense that Malak plans to betrayal me soon and he may use the Jedi as an extra reason. Now I want everybody off this ship!"
In the fury of red and violet, I had very little to think about what I was doing. The only thing I thought about was the battle, the position of my blades and the next move I was going to make. Then it was over, woah. I watched as Malak fell to his knees, suffering from the blow I had dealt to him. The colour draining from his already pale face. As I watched him fall, it hit me as to what I had just done.
"Malak. No Malak, please don't die." I cried out as I fell to my knees beside him. I could feel my eyes start to tear up but the tears never fell. I lowered my head, unable to continue looking at Malak as he died.
"R-Revan..." I heard Malak say, his hand reaching up to cup the side on my face. It was so soft, so... intimate that it was hard to comprehend how someone so nice, so... sensitive could have been so evil. "Revan. I... I know now that what we started was - is a mistake."
I nodded silently in agreement to his words, as my voice seemed to have stopped working. I dared quickly to take my eyes off Malak, and look at the crew of the Ebon Hawk - my crew. As I looked at them, though it was only for a minute or two, I could see the reason each of them had for following me this far. To be following a 'redeemable' sith lord.
"You are the person who you are now, not who you were in the past. Me and Zaalbar will follow you." Mission said sounding a lot older than she normally acted.
"Mission's right. I sworn a life debt to the person you are now not the person you once were." Zaalbar added.
"You are Revan, you single handily defeated the Mandalorians. I'll follow you no matter who you are fighting."
I had won each of them over, gained their trust. I even gained the trust of Carth Onasi, probably deemed one of the hardest people to gain trust from. How many more had I conned into following me? During the Mandalorian wars, and before that.
"Revan. There is... something I must... tell you. The reason... why we started this." Malak said. His voice had faded so much that it was now barely louder than a whisper.
"T-the reason...?"
"We... we were... trying to save... save the republic. You... you wanted... to save them..."
"Save them? Save them from what?"
"... a darkness... that is... coming." The room suddenly went colder than I thought possible. Malak was dying, the room got colder as the flicker of his life force went out.
"No, Malak! Come back! Tell me, what darkness? Who is it?" I yelled at Malak's dead body. I could feel the tears fall down my cheeks as I looked down at Malak. The Jedi council may have wiped my memory, but as I looked down at Malak's face, I could see all of the times spent together. Every memory of every time we had been together came flooding back to me.
That's when I hid, I hid away in a small dark corner of my brain. I couldn't take it anymore, the thoughts, the memories, and the face of Malak lying dead by my hand was too much for me to take.
I don't remember how I got off the Star Forge, or the awards and compliments I got on the surface of the unknown world. I was dead. Dead to the world, the universe. I didn't see the time pass, I didn't even think.
After I returned to being myself, when I had returned to living in the world around me, it was four months after the Star Forge. I have only one person to thank for pulling me through that, only one person that could take credit for me surviving that... nightmare, was Carth Onasi. He was there beside me the whole time, when other people had given up he remained.
~END~