All italic text represents the thoughts of Bastilla unless stated otherwise.
Equilibrium
Chapter One
Darkness, the power of it radiated towards her. Never before had she felt such a power and never had she allowed such a fear to envelop her. "You cannot win, Revan!" she said, whilst knowing that this statement was no doubt thought as laughable by the power she confronted, though his mask concealed him, his face giving nothing away. Why Bastila had spoken at all was unknown to her, perhaps it was to boost her confidence or at least relieve some of the nerves that gripped her as the realisation of the situation engulfed her mind. Revan, the Dark Lord, commander of the Sith fleet himself stood before her. Jedi lay dead, wasted at her very side. Without taking her eyes from him she knew the horrors that lay around her. Not just from the terrible smell of burnt flesh, blood and also the occasional whimper and groans, but also the images of the dead she could see and feel through the force. Every broken bone, twisted face, gaping wound and burnt corpse was all being thrown into her mind at once; she could feel every drop of blood as it seeped from their wounds. Death. It surrounded her. Sometimes her unnatural talent with the force was a curse, she felt the agony and pain that those she considered the closest thing to friends she ever had, die. She knew that the same fate was about to befall her.
She closed her eyes briefly and went into a state of deep thought as all her attention became focused inwards as she abandoned the outside world. Time seemed to drag longer as she meditated on the life she had led, questioning every decision she had made throughout the course of her life, reflecting on her existence. What had led to this? Having been sent to the Jedi order by her parents as a child, for reasons unbeknownst to her, her childhood was not what one would call, happy. Not that she had missed her parents overly. Even then she found it difficult to relate to anyone, most likely because even at so young an age she knew that she had great potential, causing her to think herself superior to those around her, a trait which caused a great deal of problems upon entry into the Jedi order. Her parents were always arguing and her mother seemed to pay little attention to her at all. She had few warm memories of spending time with her father but overall her memories of her childhood were painful and she rarely dwelt on the matter. Her entire life had been controlled by one person or another, starting with her parents, then the Jedi order. Realising how little freedom she had known throughout her brief existence she regretted many decisions throughout the short journey, known as life.
Light poured into her eyes as they opened and a state of disorientation and bewilderment came over her. How long she had been in that state she did not know but the confusion only intensified as she saw him, stood before her. Something was different, that much she could tell. His saber was no longer ignited; he stood facing her in a very insecure manner. She sensed something from him that she at first found hard to decipher. But slowly the feeling became clearer, though Bastila was still sure that she was in fact mistaken. Anxiety, the feeling of anxiety emanated from him, almost as powerful as the stench of death that surrounded her. Surely he could not be doubting the outcome of this battle, either with her or the few Republic cruisers that remain. He must be able to sense something I cannot. Bastila could tell that he was obviously distracted and his mind seemed to dwell in another place, originally planning to take advantage of this she ultimately decided against it. Even in the state he is I'd be dead before I move. Suddenly Revan lunged towards her with great speed, moving faster than she thought possible. Terror came over her as she raised her saber sideways in defence. Revan unleashed a great power whilst leaping forwards, the strength of which Bastila tried her best to resist but, ultimately, her powers failed her as she spiralled backwards, her body slamming against the back wall of the bridge with great velocity, bending the metal plating. There she lay motionless... Her vision blurred and thoughts muddled, only noticing what seemed to be a great ball of fire descending upon her. Jedi did not believe in a hell but she couldn't escape the feeling that she was already dead, the great fire reaching towards her to drag her away from this world.
Bastila awoke suddenly; beginning to stand, she immediately became aware of a sharp stabbing pain, torturing her lower back. A moderately large piece of metal had pierced her body and she was losing a great deal of blood. Multiple smaller wounds and scratches covered her person as she tried her best to supress the relentless pain. Somehow Bastilas saber was still embedded firmly in her hand, which she immediately returned to the belt hanging loosely around her waist. Slowly crawling aimlessly around the hellish place that had previously been known as the bridge, she dragged her body searching for an exit. Fires still raged relentlessly, the intoxicating fumes making her eyes sting with pain, the water pouring forth making it even harder to see. Whilst reaching out with her arms, she repeatedly winced as she grappled for a hold on sharp debris that littered the ground, every motion causing burning cries in her muscles and skin. Suddenly her hands reached onto something less harsh, and pleasantly soft in comparison. Fearing that she was clutching the limbless burnt corpse of a fellow Jedi, quickly she retracted her arms, a short cry of disgust echoing throughout the room. Though quickly realising that she had in fact come across something else, the unconscious body of the Sith lord, Darth Revan. At first she was scared that at any second he would awaken and finish what he had presumably started before all this happened. What exactly has happened? Surely the republic fleet had not fired upon Revans flagship whilst we were still on-board. Suddenly an overwhelming feeling of relief swept over her, empowering her as she realised that her imminent death was no longer as certain as it seemed only a few moments before. "This mission can still be a success." she told herself. The dilemma of how to proceed then hit her, followed by a great building of hatred within her heart, screaming out in her mind. Without a moment of thought she clawed at her belt raising and igniting her sabre, readying herself for the final blow of fury that she and the republic both hoped could end this brutal, bloody war.
Stop. This is not the way in which a Jedi should act; we do not kill out of hate or anger. The mission's first priority was to capture Revan alive, if possible. Killing him is a last resort. Her mind was still in great conflict as she remembered everything that this abomination of life was responsible for. Though she found sparing his life very difficult indeed she uttered a small phrase. "There is no emotion, there is peace." As expected this did not calm the hatred that continued to ravage her mind. Throughout this entire debate with herself she had completely forgotten to check if he was actually still alive. Realising how ridiculously stupid she had been Bastila was greatly dismayed to see his chest rising and falling in a shallow, steady rhythm. Placing a hand on his arm she could sense his weakness, his last breath approaching, almost wishing that the next inevitable inhale of air would never come. Revan was very close to death, but defiantly holding onto life, as, like all Sith, valuing his existence above anything else, his death being inconceivable. Bastila knew that it was very unlikely that she could save him, with the fires raging, encircling them like a predator descending on its prey; they could not stay here long. Already weakened she used every last piece of strength that she could muster and pulsed this energy down her arm and into Revan. Bastila could feel the energy surging down her arm and closing the wounds that covered Revans body like a terrible plague. It was as if she was using her physical hands to force together the deep, bloody wounds. Nausea built up inside her at the sickening feeling, quickly stopping as she found the experience too much to handle in her current state. That would have to do for now. Grabbing hold of his arms she gradually dragged his limp, motionless body towards the exit.
Malak stood staring at the battle as it unfolded. Though he could no longer sense Revans presence and that part of the plan seemed a great success he hadn't anticipated the chaos that ensued. In the confusion of Malaks ship firing upon Revans the rest of the Sith fleet broke out in an all-out brawl, not knowing who to target the commanding officers of each ship frantically and over eagerly started targeting each other as the Sith fleet began to split into multiple groups all firing at one another. Meanwhile only two republic cruisers remained, both badly damaged but taking advantage of the situation to quickly retreat. The mission seemed a success but at the cost of all Jedi that boarded Revans ship. The Interdictor-class cruiser spewing out all manner of smokes as fires raged all over the crippled ship. Revan was undoubtedly finished; unfortunately the Jedi had no possible chance of escaping, the hanger bays blitzed beyond all recognition. With a sense of both joy and mourning the two Hammerhead-class cruisers jumped out.
Remarkably in the confusion no one seemed to notice a lone Jedi dragging an unconscious body, shrouded in black, slowly throughout the ship. Surprisingly Bastila encountered relatively few individuals as she moved, those she did were either too busy in the pandemonium they currently found themselves a part of, or were quickly dispatched because of their hesitation. The hangar bay was completely destroyed, blast doors locking off her escape route. Bastilas own injuries were still extensive, her condition worsening every second; she shouldn't even be moving let alone strenuously dragging a body behind her. The entire ordeal was exhausting, seemingly slipping in and out of consciousness as she continued. Upon reaching the escape pods, her only remaining means of escape, Bastila was surprised that they were unguarded, and somehow she had made it through half the ship, without collapsing from exhaustion or being killed. Knowing the distinct possibility that this would be her final action, she opened the escape pod doors, pulling herself, and Revan, into the compartment, all the while her entire body screaming in an inferno of pain. The pod carrying their last glimmer of hope fired the two out into a still raging battle.
At least twelve Sith vessels were battling in the skirmish, Bastila was slowly piecing together the story as it had unfolded, for some reason one of the Sith cruisers had launched an attack on Revan, most likely in a quick grab for power, the remainder of the story was obvious. Turbulence shuck her to the core as the pod grazed large debris from decimated ships. Lasers sprayed forth from every angle; by all rights they should already be dead. A stray blast hit the side of the pod, a deafening ghostly scream pierced into her mind as the air forced its way free into the dark blackness of space. Emergency containment had already sealed the hull breach, though possibly all too late. Dark, light, both lay motionless, silent. Onward the pod hurtled towards the deep unknown depths of the outer rim.
Authors Notes
Ok so this is my first piece of fan fiction I've ever written. Through writing this chapter I have realised I am in fact a fairly terrible writer with a very limited vocabulary and repeat the same words repeatedly. I intend to improve this by writing a lot more and hopefully throughout the course of writing this story the change in my skill will be noticeable. This is the first chapter of a story which I currently expect to be over 20 chapters long. I re-writ this chapter over 3 times and am still not completely happy with it. Rather than spend hours re-writing it to get an end product that's even worse than it was to start with I was hoping that some kind and skilful writers on this site could give me some suggestions and constructive criticism. Either leave it as a review or send me an email at
"kotor-equilibrium(a)hotmailcouk" wow it loves auto deleting email addressess so yeah... you'll have to put the dots and at symbol in yourselves, leave the hyphon in.
Remember to highlight the numerous spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes I've made :D