Chapter Two

Riam was wrong. The flight deck command centre was a mess, but unlike the bridge it was still functional. Everywhere that Emera looked she saw the destruction caused by the almost constant bombardment. Something was going to give soon and at three to one odds, it wasn't likely to be the enemy.

"Lady Emera," Admiral Ghir bowed, "Thank the force you're all right."

Emera nodded slightly as the Admiral related their situation. The ship had sustained heavy damage, but fortunately, as Emera had noted the Radiant was a sturdy ship. The admiral continued with his assessment, but unfortunately the admiral's gravelly voice was drowned out by the ever-present dialogue from Riam.

"These people's deaths will be on your head," Riam whispered, "Submit and I will show mercy. All I want is you. You're all I ever wanted. Ever since we were children. Don't you remember?"

Emera did remember and once she had felt the same. Once they had been young and in love. Once they had been righteous, once they had had a future. They had never voiced their love, but I must have been obvious to everyone around them. It had been discouraged by the order and whilst she was sure that their master had known how they had felt. He hadn't felt the need to intervene or comment. This was their folly. The Jedi discourage such attachments, but it wasn't forbidden.

Against her will Emera's mind was forced back into the past as she reflected upon the path that had led them there. They had both been trained by the prestigious Jedi Master Ketaris. They had been taken from their separate home worlds and brought to Master Ketaris's home planet of Umari. Emera hadn't thought much of Riam when they had first met, but then he was little more than a scruffy boy and she a noblewoman from her planet. They were worlds apart, yet when he first spoke to her it felt like she had known him all her life. An instant spark had formed between them.

"I didn't know there could be girl Jedi's" Riam's young voice had been high pitched and nervous. He had blurted it in a fit of nervousness. She knew that he hadn't meant it as an insult. His view of the universe had been so sheltered. He had been raised from rags, living on the streets with no one to care for him. It was only through exceedingly good fortune and the will of the force that he had been found by the Jedi and his true potential had been discovered.

"Of course, there are girl Jedi," Young Emera had replied, "and I'm going to be the greatest of them."

She had really thought that once, but then she too had been far younger than her worldly composure would have led someone to believe. She was only a year older than Riam when they had met, but she had helped him, consoled him, comforted him when he missed his home and he had done the same for her. Master Ketaris hadn't been a harsh master, but he had been a stoic one. He tolerated no weakness from his students. His lessons were firm and he made no apology for that. He claimed that he was raising Jedi, not raising children. This had been particularly difficult for Riam. He hadn't exactly had a particularly structured life up until that point. He had a strong proclivity for the force though, his power had been astounding. He grasped the subtleties of the force like he had been born to it. Through him, Emera felt her own connection to the force strengthen. As they learned they instinctively passed on their teachings to the other. What one would learn, the other would acquire as if they had simply remembered a long lost talent. Although they lives had been simple and stark. They had been happy. Looking back Emera realized that she probably could have lived quite happily for the rest of her life learning the secrets of the force on Umari, but that wasn't to be.

It happened so suddenly – The Mandalorians attacked the Republic. Emera watched as the casualties and reports of the battles came in from the core worlds. tales of the brutality of their enemy and the massacres that they had wrought. It had seemed like nothing was going to stop them. Then Revan came. When Revan had called forth the Jedi to join the war she had Riam were just shy of twenty years at the time, old enough to be an adult, but still young for a Jedi.

When Revan called it hadn't been Riam that had insisted that they go. It had been Emera. One of the worlds plundered by the Mandalorians had been her own homeworld. She wasn't supposed to have strong feelings about that, but she did. She raged that while the Mandalorians burned across the galaxy the republic seemingly did nothing. He railed against the edict of the Jedi council that they were not to interfere. She had been contemplating leaving her training to return home. She had spoken to no one of her plans, but with Riam she hadn't needed to voice them. He had known.

Nothing else could have brought him forth from his studies. He hadn't hesitated. He had already discussed the matter with Master Ketaris and sought permission to leave. Permission hadn't been given. Master Ketaris had claimed that they hadn't finished their studies, that they hadn't reached their potential yet. Ketaris had always droned on about a Jedi's potential. No act of expertise, no matter how spectacular ever measured up to the potential that Ketaris sought from his students. In the end his permission hadn't mattered they had gone anyway.

Ketaris had been angry when Emera and Riam had left, but by that stage it was too late. They no longer listened to their former Master, they had found new Masters to teach them, new Masters that were schooling them in the arts of war.

The war was like nothing that Emera had expected. In the harsh jungles of Dxun they finally met their enemy. The Mandalorians were a brutal foe. They paid no heed to the niceties of the war and the Jedi paid a grievous price for every misstep. For five years Emera and Riam fought on the Dxun moon against an enemy that gave no quarter, gave no ground and each success was sorely gained. In battle Emera found that her affinity with Riam was a valuable asset. Alone they were dangerous, together they were lethal. They formed a maelstrom of power in the force together. Each of their weaknesses cancelled out by the other's strong. They were unstoppable.

There were none that could stand against them when they were aligned in battle. No Mandarlorian Warlord, No ravager, even other Jedi on the training grounds. As the shroud of combat took them their minds became one and their bodies seemed to merge into one single mind of purpose. It was intoxicating; it was the thrill of the surrender to the will of the force, combined with the thrill of dominion over those who so desperately deserved the judgement of the Jedi. Each day Emera looked forward to the battle that would inevitably come, a battle where she would be joined in soul with Riam once more and could unleash their power against a foe who deserved no mercy.

As their successes mounted they gained notoriety, their feats even coming into the attention of Lord Revan. This had been Emera's proudest day. A commendation had arrived from Revan along with a promotion and the command of a fleet. They were to meet the enemy not as grunt soldiers, but as admirals. Had they thought themselves dangerous on the ground, they had only just begun to show their potential. In the seats of a Starfighter the two were unbeatable. Their battle trance which had only been experienced in single combat also applied to the battle of the stars. Despite the distance between their fighters, the thrill of the battle was the same. The bonding and deepening of their connection through the force made them a force in themselves. The Mandalorians couldn't hope to stand against them. It was like a drug and everyday Emera wanted more.

Whole Mandalorian Fleets fell before them as their cruisers pushed their way deep into Mandalorian territory and towards the conclusion of the war. Emera and Riam hadn't been present at the final battle on Malachor V. They had been tasked with mopping up the remains of a shattered Mandalorian fleet that had been swept aside as Revan's fleet unleashed its master stroke into the heart of the Mandalorian empire. They hadn't seen the battle with their eyes, but they had felt it through the force. In one single terrible moment they had felt the deaths, the massacre, and the sheer magnitude of the explosion that had ended the battle. After Malachor V everything was different. They spent the next year mopping up bands of Mandalorians too stupid to realise the battle was done. The war had lasted more than fifteen years, and for twelve of them Emera and Riam had been on the front lines. No longer a child and no longer a padawan, Emera had thought that her job was done, that she could return to her people. She was done with the Jedi. They had allowed this atrocity to happen, had they acted more swiftly then it wouldn't have taken Revan's defiance to bring it to an end. No one had heard of Revan and Malak since the battle. Everyone had assumed that they had perished in their master stroke.

Then the call came. Revan had returned, and everything was different. Emera realized at once that this was not the former General who had led them to greatness. Bearing the trappings of the long forgotten Sith empire, Revan took the title Darth and called out to former allies to join in battle once again. This time against the Republic that he claimed had been the cause of the Mandalorian atrocity. Revan called the Republic too weak to be allowed to dictate the path of its future. It would need to fall, so that a stronger empire could rise - an Empire that would not allow the mistakes of the past to happen again.

Emera should have rejoiced at the call. Revan's words mirrored her own thoughts in the darkness of the night. Revan had promised everything that she had once sought. A justice against the foolish old masters who had sat on their high throne in Coruscant, whilst brave and honest men gave their lives, the Jedi had deliberated and squandered the power that they had been given. The old masters should have used that power to protect the republic. They hadn't. Instead they had exiled every Jedi who had left to join Revan. Emera hadn't cared. She was done with the Jedi anyway.

Emera should have been ecstatic at Revan's words, but something was different. Revan was no longer as she had remembered. Maybe Revan had changed, maybe she had. It didn't matter. Emera didn't want this anymore. She didn't want to lead troops into battle. She didn't want to cradle the dying. She didn't even really rejoice anymore over dominion of her foes. She was done with war.

She had thought that Riam would have felt the same way that she had. He had certainly always felt the same way she had. She had never doubted this. She had come to trust that he would share the same views on any matter. They had always been of one mind. Every time, Except this one time – this one time that it mattered.

She hadn't known how much Riam had hungered for the opportunity that Revan promised. In his mind Emera could see the trappings of power and dominion that had taken hold over him. Had they always been there? Had she never noticed? Or had her closest friend also changed? Had she been changed also? The moment of doubt was all it took for the rift to form between them. Had it been just a difference of opinion they might have been able to reconcile, but it was far more than that. Only an act of brutality would.

As Revan's orders swept through the fleet, those still loyal to the republic, perhaps those who had family in the core worlds or those who didn't want the harsh gauntlet of war to touch their home worlds refused to heed to Revan's call. It started as small isolated fights between those who thought Revan was right and those who thought otherwise. It didn't just end in small fights, soon enough a pogrom tore through the fleet as loyal officers and fleet crew were murdered by their former allies. Those who refused to swear fealty to Darth Revan and the new Sith empire were purged. At the head of the mutiny was a newly crowned Lord Riam. No longer a General, no longer a Jedi. Riam had become something that she no longer recognized. The darkness had finally taken him.

She didn't know if it was a twisted form of love, or if it was cowardice that wouldn't allow Riam to turn on her initially, but he had refused to denounce her or turn her over to his minions. She watched in futile desperation for far too long as he slaughtered a swath through troops that had once been loyal to them both and to the republic. Then she could finally take it no more. She rallied what troops she could save that were still loyal and broke off from the main fleet, stealing several heavy cruisers and support craft. It was a small fleet, yet it was enough. She had a plan. She quickly destroyed several hyperspace beacons that would lead the Sith fleet deeper into the core worlds. It had been an act of desperation as she knew that Revan would need those routes, without them Revan would need to secure new paths to achieve his goals. It would allow time for the Republic to muster a response.

She had felt Riam's fury as he had discovered what she had done from across the sector. He rallied what remained of their once great fleet and turned it in new purpose towards hunting down and destroying her. For six months she had eluded Riam's forces. For six months she had fought him. For six months she had railed that she would be forced to kill Riam and mourned the loss of what he once been. For six months she played a deadly game of cat and mouse with Riam's forces, but in the end. He had the numbers. More of the fleet had chosen to follow him. She was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. Time was running out.

"There is even less time than you know." Riams voice interjected into her past, "Join me. I don't want to kill you. Everything I have done – I have done for you. You must join me. Revan is coming."