Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic III

The True Sith

Preface

In the Unknown Regions, time stands still, caught in a crossroad between dreams and reality. The faces of those she has killed and loved fly by her in nightmares that never cease to make her scream in the darkness of the day. The faces had been reality, but for one year they had been nothing more than a bridge to her past. A bridge that was beginning to crumble under the solitude life she now led. She could hardly remember who she was and who she had been so many months ago. Had she followed the path of light or dark and which road was she on now? These questions were the ones that haunted her when the ghosts from her memories were quiet. These were the questions her only companion couldn't answer because he too was searching for his old life.

She pitied him. His memory had been ripped away from him before and now his thoughts only consisted of the present and his past remained only a shadow in the corner of his mind, but she knew the shadows hadn't completely left him. He missed them all, but especially one in particular. The one who had been so hesitant for him to leave and the one who had asked about him when the Exile arrived on a planet who's name escaped her. He had fallen in love and broke the sacred code, but she wasn't really one to criticize the mistakes he made. She had been in love before.

His hair was the color of chocolate with brown eyes scorched with a blazing gold around the iris. His personality was always burning, but like fire had a warm touch in the depths of the licking flames. He had fallen, but redeemed himself in his travels with her. Now he was leading the dark world back into the light with her other past companions, all who she missed terribly, but not as fierce as the first. She would die to protect the others, but would save herself for him so that he wouldn't have to go through the hurt he would feel if she was dead. The grief of loss was worse than Death's pain. She knew he was hurting since she was out of his life, but this was something she had to do. The True Sith had to be stopped.

A shadow moved out of the corner of her eyes and at once a silver object flew into her grasp. She ignited the saber and plunged it into the darkness that surrounded her. A face, tainted orange with the color of her blade, flashed into focus. She sighed with relief, but also with annoyance as she recognized the figure. Finally a chance to add some life to her boring days and nights and her attacker had been her only ally. Sheathing her saber, she returned to her meditation and murmured in a poor attempt of a calming voice, "Why have you disturbed me, Revan?"

"Put down you charade, Exile, there are no followers of the light here to chastise your annoyance," Revan's command was a whisper. While they were probably the only living travelers in this dead world for light years upon light years, they only spoke in soft tones. The haunting of the shadows stopped them from ever raising their voice above murmurs and whispers.

"Really, Revan? I see one," Exile loosened her body and rose to her feet crossing the invisible ground to reach Revan. She felt his body rumble next to her in a low chuckle and a soft smile danced across her lips. It had been long since she heard her companion laugh and even in it's silence, the laugh seemed to bring light to the darkness.

"I would love that to be true, Exile, but how can I know if I follow the light if I don't even remember what I did in the past other than be Revan, lord of the Sith," Revan spat out his old name and Exile sighed as the light was once more swallowed by the darkness. She rested a calming hand on his shoulder and let the Force flow through him, calming his soul. How she wished it would be as simple as to calm herself.

"It doesn't matter what you did in the past, Revan. What matters is what you are doing now and you are trying to stop the True Sith from taking over the galaxy," Exile soothed. She had expected to feel him calm, but was surprised when his body tensed up more than it had before. She ran her words once more through her head trying to realize what would make him react in this way.

Her thoughts were answered when he spoke again, igniting his own questions, "What if I'm only doing it for my own selfish nature, Exile? What if I only want the True Sith to be stopped so that leaves me room to conquer the galaxy?"

"That would be true, but if you didn't follow the light than-" Exile was cut off as Revan gasped, his hand grasped hers and tightly holding on to it. "Ouch Revan that hurts. What happened? What did you see?" Revan didn't respond, but he did act. He flung himself forward, dragging Exile with him and plunged into the darkness. Exile ran with him, her strides matching his step for step. She knew, even blind, where they were heading. To the only standing building in the Unknown Regions and the hanger where their emergency ships were held incase they ever had to leave the dark lands.

Revan flung Exile against one and growled, "Get in!" Revan's snarl broke the silence of the Unknown Regions and Exile had no choice, but to obey as her quiet life was ripped from underneath her. She threw open the freighter and shoved herself in, watching out of the corner of her eye as her companion did the same. She turned on the engines of the ship and was shocked at how loud the machine roared. Was it always this loud or had the Unknown Regions made her deaf to the noise of technology?

Exile hovered over the ground and switched on the comlink, relieved that Revan had his on. "What's going on?" She said, speaking the loudest words she had in a year. When Revan's static voice responded, Exile heard a drip of panic flood into his speech, "We have to warn them." And the comlink shut off, but Exile didn't need another word. She understood everything now. The True Sith had revealed themselves and it was time to return to known space. Despite her fear there was a sense of excitement in her and she plunged the ship into darkness and let hyperspace take her away from the Unknown Regions forever at light speed.