Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Hunters and Killers

Bastila Shan could feel that Revan was close, but she couldn't understand why he was hiding from her. It had taken some convincing and a few threats to HK-47 to get Serenity's crew to let them watch the distress signal left by the Alliance team sent to Miranda over a decade before and the Jedi Knight shivered as she recalled the terrible death she'd witnessed on the copy River had given to her. Serenity's captain refused to give up the recording and Bastila was inclined to let the man keep the original as well as the copy, but it was necessary to discover what had happened on the world that had left such a powerful scar within the Force that it brought Revan there.

What she'd seen of the Reavers had made her blood run cold in her veins and she'd lost her lunch by the time the Reavers on the recording had finished with the woman. She had thought Darth Malak had been the epitome of evil once, before Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion had brought the sad remnants of the Jedi Order to near-extinction. Revan and Malak had a purpose behind their actions while Nihilus had only wanted to become Death incarnate and consume the lives of all Jedi and all worlds. Darth Sion had been so blinded by his own pain that his only comfort was to spread it. Bastila knew little of Darth Traya's fate. The Exile had been closed off over the issue of Revan's old Jedi Master's end and there hadn't been anyone else there to witness Kreia's end.

Bastila hoped Kreia hadn't been so consumed with whatever her cause had been that she had become a monster like Nihilus or Sion. Kreia had been there for her daughter's birth and had offered an odd sort of comfort to the Jedi Knight in the wake of Revan's disappearance. Of all of the Jedi that remained, Kreia had been the one to understand Revan's need to seek whatever threat had formed and Bastila glanced down at the datacrystal in her hand, torn between destroying the horrific murder it contained and the need to understand what Revan had come to the verse to face.

She had no doubt in her mind that Revan had sensed the Reavers. Their presence within the Force was muted and almost animal in nature and Bastila could not fathom the insanity that would drive men, human men to the violent violation and butchery she'd seen. Even Canderous, hardened as he was after a lifetime of warfare and destruction had turned his eyes from the woman's screams. They couldn't understand the English the woman spoke, but the woman's hopeless expression, her attempt to end her own life before the Reavers could reach her and her inevitably slow and agonizing death at the creature's hands was a clear message.

HK-47 had translated the recording without his usual appreciation of violence and bloodlust and Bastila had been too disturbed by the Miranda recording to notice. The droid was an assassin and enjoyed inflicting damage on meatbags, but there was no understandable goal within the recording of the torture the woman had endured before her death and HK-47 found it disgusting, surprisingly enough. Killing worthless meatbags was one thing, mindlessly torturing them and then mutilating them and sewing their flesh onto your covering was just something the assassin droid could not compute.

"Curious Inquiry: What is the point of these rabid meatbags?"
The droid questioned Canderous after Bastila and the others had retreated to more private areas to shake off the horrors they'd seen on the recording. Canderous glanced at the droid with a frown beneath his mask before shaking his head and leaving without a word. HK-47 could say some sadistically funny things, but Canderous wasn't going to sit around and explain why the recording wasn't entertaining to Revan's demonic creation. HK-47 appreciated violence, not evil and what Canderous had seen in the recording had been evil in its purest form.

"They were supposed to stop, but they didn't. The pax was supposed to reprogram them, but it only made them monsters. They won't stop, they won't lay down like the others and they'll come with blades and teeth and pain and hunger and all they want is to rip and tear and rape and murder..."
HK-47's computer core registered an appropriate tactical response of incineration for stealthily approaching an assassin droid unnoticed, but the Hunter Killer droid resisted the reaction as the small meatbag had answered his inquiry. Instead he turned his red-orange eyes to River Tam as the young woman stared at him with wide brown eyes.

"Disgusted Observation: There is no purpose to their actions. No logical sense in the Pax-infected meatbag's design. An adverse reaction to the Pax should result in the observed decaying meatbag status. The reaction of these Reaver-meatbags does not compute."
River stared at the droid, fascinated by the mechanical life before her and confused as to why it registered in her mind as having thought patterns. It didn't look like a cyborg and she wondered if the droid was an actual living machine. It had an almost child-like attitude and she found it if not a little disturbing to be impossible without the use of biological parts harvested from humans... or aliens. The young genius was still trying to work out the workings of Mission Vao's alien mind and found that it wouldn't quantify.

"The experiment was done through a terraforming air processor. It is likely that an unknown element effected the Pax that would cause adverse reactions not noted in previous research on G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate. Not all of the worlds terraformed were devoid of life and a mutation is not entirely impossible."
HK found that River's observation was feasible and conceded the possibility.

"Concession: Your meatbag logic is sound. Declaration: This HK-47 unit will terminate all Pax-infected meatbags it encounters. Conclusion: Master would approve."

River couldn't quite summon the will to giggle at the droid, but she smiled slightly at the creation, sorting through her memories of Revan and finding a sense of fondness for the mechanical monstrosity. It was like a child to Revan, one he had created with his hands and one he maintained as well as Jayne maintained Vera. River could appreciate the droid's outlook and she frowned when a stray thought struck her brainpan, pressing down on her thoughts with all the grace of a sledgehammer.
"Simon is streaky."
River sighed longsufferingly, shuddering at the invasion of her brother's thoughts. She couldn't filter them and while she was feeling better after coming to Miranda and finding the recording and knowing that the memories of the Parliament men were not hers, she found her tentative grasp on her sanity and control slipping in the wake of strange and seemingly impossible things.

"Analysis: The Simon-meatbag has been exposed to trace amounts of G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate. Hopeful Conclusion: Termination would be an effective cure."
River frowned at the droid, uncertain as to the seriousness of its words and worried for her brother despite the assault of his worry on her mind. Simon had saved her from the Academy and given up his fortune and his life to free her and she couldn't let him die.

"I can kill you with my brain."
River warned the droid, staring at the machine hard with a disapproving frown while the droid turned to regard her with a seemingly curious tilt to its head.

"Observation: This HK-47's sensors show a lack of adequate Midichlorians within your system for such a feat to be possible. Analysis: The presence of psychic capabilities hints at a connection to the Force, but untrained you are incapable of carrying out your threat. Conclusion: This HK-47 unit is safe from your psychic assault and conditioned by Master to resist rudimentary Force-assaults."

River blinked at the droid in shock, her bluff that had unsettled the ape-man gone wrong so thoroughly was so easily dismissed. Put out by the droid, River glared at the machine, seriously trying to kill it with her brain. Bastila entered shortly after to find River glaring at HK-47 in the Ebon Hawk's common room. Frowning at the girl, Bastila turned to look at HK's unmoving form and rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind HK, River. He has the uncanny ability of his maker to be insufferable at times, but also invaluable."
River held her glare on HK for another moment before turning to Bastila and smiling brightly at the Jedi. Bastila radiated a warm blue glow that was soothing and her thoughts were carefully shielded behind an invisible wall that River wished everyone had. Her own mind wouldn't be so crowded if that were the case.

"The construct derailed my strategy to keep the Ape-man docile. If the man-called Jayne knows I can't kill him with my brain he will no longer fear the girl."
Bastila frowned at River, trying not to be irritated at the girl. Fear was never a good thing.

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering..."

River muttered in surprise, turning to stare at Bastila. The Jedi's frown smoothed to a neutral mask and Bastila seated herself beside the young reader, gently touching River's arm. River stiffened at the touch, her eyes wide as they darted to the gloves Bastila wore on her hands before she relaxed at their color. Brown gloves weren't as bad as blue.
"Ancient rhetoric told from old fools who hide in towers of metal and glass and look out across the galaxy with fear of its reality and scope."
Darth Revan had said such a thing once, after his initial invasion of the Republic and Bastila frowned at the angry look on the girl's face as she mimicked Revan's voice.

"Just because the source of the knowledge is not infallible does not mean the teachings are flawed. I saw in your mind you touched Revan's... I can also sense that he is near and- and very angry about something."The Jedi Knight frowned in concern at what she had sensed from Revan and turned her eyes to the bag that Canderous had recovered with Revan's belongings. River followed Bastila's gaze and tilted her head curiously, standing gracefully and practically floating to the bag while Bastila frowned at the girl and stood slowly, with the easy grace of a trained fighter and a Jedi. River knelt by the bag and opened it, snatching the red and black mask crafted from Mandalorian metal from the top and turning it in her small hands curiously.

"Threat: Release the Master's mask, meatbag."
River ignored HK, running her fingers along the red lines painted into the black mask and shivering as she placed the mask back in place. Bastila waved her hand and HK-47's eyes dimmed as he went in standby mode. There was no sense getting the poor girl hurt because the droid was overprotective of his creator.

"The mask was his face during war. Black for his soul and red for the blood he shed. He wore it as a shield over his heart. Hardened his feelings in the metal of his people."
The reader looked troubled briefly at the sheer scope of violence she could sense from the simple image of the mask. When she'd touched Revan's mind in the Academy and saw his thoughts they were on such a grand scale, so utterly different from what she had known all her life and what the Academy had forced onto her that she had been comforted by how surreal it was. It was a refuge from the pain and it played out like an epic novel.
The reality of what Revan had been and what he had done had been understood on a rational level of River's mind, but to look into the mask and see the face of a Dark Lord of the Sith that had killed more beings than existed in the entire verse was not a surreal experience. It was just downright creepifying.

"A contradiction. Hero and Villain. Savior and Conqueror. Light and Dark. Master and Slave..."
The last part was said with an angry expression on the young reader's face and she reached past the mask to lift out one of Revan's lightsabers. Bastila stiffened from where she stood, using the Force to hold the weapon's switch in a locked position so River wouldn't accidentally skewer herself. River stared at the weapon with a frown, its black hilt gleaming in the lighting as she balanced the weapon in her small hand.
"Enslaved. Buried beneath a wall of light and left to rot. Dressed him up like a gorram little tin soldier. Cut into his brain and filled it with their intentions! They weren't his! He shouldn't have carried them!"
The anger of the Sith Lord within Revan had touched River as well as the memories and the reader saw what was done to Revan by the Jedi. Instead of torture and conditioned responses and needles in the eyes like the Academy, the Jedi had taken his scattered thoughts and pushed them back, buried them beneath barriers of light that scorched the darkness and made a slave of the man. She could relate.

"A pawn to the Council."
Bastila shivered at the girl's words being mimicked in her own voice when she had fallen and Revan had saved her. Swallowing back the lump in her throat that formed at the thought of what was done to Revan, Bastila pushed aside her own anger at the thought. She had been told his mind was too badly damaged for the Sith Lord to ever resurface, but he had and it was apparent that someone had forced the Mindwipe and implanted personality onto the man. Even as the Prodigal Knight had controlled Revan, the man he had been remained and Bastila stared at the glare River cast her with a sigh.

"The Council had their reasons... and all who played a conscious part in that are dead and gone."
River shook her head in denial, glaring in the direction of the Exile's sleeping form.

"The librarian wore white to keep away the darkness, but she could only cover the darkness within her, not repel it."

It took Bastila a moment to realize the girl was talking about Atris, who as far as she knew was dead on Telos' surface.

"Do you mean-"
River cut off Bastila, her small fingers running along Revan's weapon as her wide brown eyes stared at the patterns etched into the hilt.

"The Death of the Force... the Destroyer of Worlds let the librarian linger. It would have been a cruelty to kill a broken doll, but the doll wore a mask. One of pain and remorse. The mask is falling away, chipped away piece by piece..."
River turned her attention back to the mask and Bastila relaxed slightly when the young reader returned Revan's weapon to the bag. River ran her fingers along the dents and scratches in the surface of the faded mask's paint and trembled.

"The Lord of Revenge is strong... but broken. The Prodigal Knight balances him but he is the one holding the strings. The puppet of the Council is his puppet now."
River frowned and made a disgusted face as she stuck her tongue out at the mask and dropped it back into the bag.

"He paints such masterpieces... but his art is death and war."
The reader said to the Jedi before standing gracefully and dancing away from the hold and out into Miranda's setting sun. Bastila watched the girl go with a frown, reaching along the bond she shared with Revan unconsciously in her worry.

"Girl's ain't right in the head. You saw what them Alliance hundans did to her. She's a mite unpredictable... but she ain't been wrong."
Bastila glanced sharply at the man that entered the Ebon Hawk with a slow and easy stride. The Jedi spotted a beautiful woman dressed in a fine gown at the man's shoulder and offered a small bow of respect to both. If nothing else the man in the long brown coat was a soldier at one point and the woman carried herself with a grace and poise that only Senators and Jedi Masters could match. The Jedi touched a device on her wrist, ignoring the way Malcolm Reynolds tensed and dropped a hand to his pistol.

"Just her translator. Might be a good idea to get your hand off that cannon."
Mal turned in surprise, not used to people being able to sneak up on him and came face to face with a beautiful young woman with short red hair and dressed in a set of green and brown robes. The woman smirked at Mal and nodded to Inara before moving past them and turning off the translator protocols of her wrist-communicator that lay just beneath her Mandalorian wrist-gauntlet.

"I feel we can trust these people, Mira. The fleet should be arriving-"
Mal cut off Bastila and Mira's conversation when the Jedi Knight's translator offered a cultured and very British-sounding English version of Bastila's Galactic Basic for the Captain of Serenity.

"Hold on a second there, lady. You sayin you got a fleet coming this way?"
Taking in the look of worry on Mal's face, Bastila made a signal to Mira to wake the others and she moved to stand before Mal and Inara, glancing at the Companion for a moment before she turned her full attention to Mal.

"Captain Reynolds is it? I hold the rank of General within the Republic military. This gives me command of all units not directly associated with the Republic Navy. I hold command over the fighter squadrons and the soldiers on those ships but not the ships themselves. The only Jedi to ever hold Supreme Command over the Republic fleet was... well, my husband, Revan Qel-Droma. I am unsure what you know of River Tam's past but somewhere in the... Academy that mutilated that poor girl's mind she encountered Revan. He was on the edge of Republic space in search of a danger that he sensed. He would say very little over the subject but I believe he was speaking of the Reavers."
Mal nodded, glancing in concern at Inara as the Companion shivered at the mention of Reavers. He'd have offered comfort if he wasn't so scared himself.

"Reavers is what I am worried about, ma'am. There's a whole fleet of them, dozens of their ships just floating around in the space around Miranda, maybe hundreds. You probably saw that debris patch?"
At Bastila's nod, Mal continued.

"Well, Reavers as you saw in that recording ain't exactly dumb. We managed to get by them, but if a fleet just shows up..."
Inara picked up where Mal left off, her hand resting on one of Mal's crossed arms.

"What Captain Reynolds is trying to say is there is a danger to your people if they-"
Bastila raised a hand to cut off Inara, causing the Companion to frown. The gesture was rude, but she doubted the Jedi meant it to be.

"Your technology is inferior in every way but one. Your terraforming technology is amazing. Centuries beyond anything the Republic could make. Even so the military tech I have seen so far is... archaic at best. Ancient is the better word..."
Not liking the dismissive tone in the Jedi's voice, Mal dropped a hand to his gun again out of habit and did a bit of posturing while Inara rolled her eyes in annoyance at his masculine display.
"Lady you ain't never dealt with Reavers. They ain't men. They're wild, insane. They come at you and they don't stop till they get what they want and what they want is to eat you, torture you and rape you to death or make you like them. There ain't no-"
Bastila's stare and Inara's hand tightening on Mal's arm caused the Captain to stop his speech.

"Captain Reynolds. The fleet we are the vanguard for consists of a third of the Republic's surviving ships from the Jedi Civil War and the Mandalorian Wars as well as a contingent of Mandalorian warriors and elements of the Onderonian Royal Navy and the Telosian Security Force. Soldiers from across the entire galaxy are coming at the head of nearly a million ships. Each ship holds an average of six thousand crewmen and soldiers. That makes close to six billion soldiers that are veterans of some of the bloodiest and most violent conflicts the galaxy has seen in the last two decades. We would have ten times the numbers if not for the Jedi Civil War and twice again that number if not for the Mandalorian war."
Mal's mouth moved but no words came out. Inara, trained to observe body language and read people saw no deceit in the young woman's speech and she took a moment to recover from her own shock.

"I- it is hard to fathom the numbers..."
Inara said as gracefully as she could, her beautiful features expressionless, though a line formed between her brows. Bastila crossed her arms, looking annoyed.

"Revan was the leader of the Sith Empire and the Revanchists. He was labeled a traitor to the Republic and the Jedi Order for crimes against sentient life. He is responsible for the deaths of over one trillion sentient beings. He was a monster and a tyrant as a Sith Lord but a great and good man as a Jedi. He disappeared over three years ago in this area of space. His belongings were recovered on this very world and Miss Tam says he is a captive of the Academy and the Alliance. When he left he was a good man... but he carried a monster within him. You cannot begin to fathom the powers the Force opens up to us. I am shocked he was so easily captured... but I recall a time when I myself was apprehended with apparent ease on Taris. If he is the Jedi and not the Sith Lord we may yet be able to salvage your verse but if Revan is the Lord of Revenge again... there is no telling what he will do to your little systems."
Mal looked a little angered at the thought of Revan being such a monster and confused as well. The young woman before him claimed to be the monster's wife yet was warning them off of him.

"How- what?"
Mal shook his head, casting a glance to Inara. The Companion seemed to read Mal's thoughts and rolled her eyes at his eloquence.

"I believe Captain Reynolds is confused as to why you are... married to such a man."
Not wanting to explain it all, Bastila turned to a nearby computer console and took a datapad, downloading all of the information; classified or no on Revan Qel-Droma and handed the information to Mal.

"It will translate into English or Chinese text for you when you connect it to your ship's computer. It's a simple process to link the console and the datapad and it will give you a generalized review of the man I married and perhaps even why I married him. Revan was... larger than life. A hero as much as a Villain. He walked on a path filled with shadows and light, along the knife's edge between good and evil. There was always a reason for his violence though... It wasn't always apparent but... there was always a very good reason."
Looking a bit skeptical and annoyed, Mal frowned down at the datapad before nodding to Bastila and leaving. Between Wash and Kaylee he figured they could run the datapad and Mal was curious as to why the strange woman was so enthralled with a man who sounded about as bad as Hitler from Earth-that-was.

Inara lingered on the Ebon Hawk, regarding Bastila Shan with a curious stare. The Jedi returned the stare blankly, a pinch of irritation showing on her brow.

"I don't ask your understanding. Revan is my husband and the father of my daughter. He is a good man, despite the evil is he capable of and he was pardoned by the Jedi Order, the Republic Senate and the Onderonian Royal Court. So long as he is not actively leading the remnant Sith Empire, Revan is not the evil man he once was in their eyes and he will never be that monster in mine. He- he pulled me from the edge of my own darkness and despair and saved me like he saved so many others... Re- Revan saved so many more than he killed, you have to understand that."
Inara nodded indulgently, keeping her expression consoling but also neutral. She could tell the woman was distraught over her husband and she chose to reserve judgement on Revan until she saw the information on the datapad.
"How powerful are your communications systems?"
The Companion asked the Jedi curiously, her brown eyes locking with Bastila's gray. Bastila simply rose a brow and flicked on the console beside her, bringing up a holo of the entire galaxy. A small blue indicator showed where the Ebon Hawk was and a mass of green dots approaching the blue signal showed Inara the incoming Republic and Onderonian fleet.

"This world near the edge of the galactic core is Coruscant. The Capitol of the Republic and a city-world like Taris was before the Sith bombardment. We can communicate in real time with the space you see here. It is possible by a series of hyperspace drones and transponders that carry the signals to the destination from the source. As I said to Captain Reynolds before. We are much more advanced than your people."
A plan began to form in Inara's head and she thanked Bastila before moving off to follow Mal back to Serenity. She had so many questions for the Ebon Hawk's crew, but there was so much to be done and if she knew Mal that would be something either amazingly heroic or incredibly stupid. There was a possibility it would be both and the Companion spared a glance over her shoulder to see a man about Jayne's size and build watching her from the bottom of the Hawk's ramp with a weapon that looked like it could shoot down Serenity in his arms and a silver mask and armor obscuring his features. Turning away quickly, Inara reached Serenity faster than was necessary and let a breath of relief out when she stepped into the cargo hold.

"Mal getting any dumb ideas?"
Jayne asked from his position on the catwalks. Inara glanced at the mercenary with a scowl, moving on without a word to her shuttle. Shrugging off the callous dismissal from the Companion, Jayne continued his watch of the cargo bay, his fingers tightening around Vera as he clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the fact that they were set down on a blackrock surrounded by thirty million corpses.

Mr Universe tensed when one of the Alliance Marines guarding him approached the Operative. Keeping his expression casual, the Cortex hacker jerked in surprise when the soldier came to his keyboard and began typing in a series of commands on what looked like a very high end Alliance code. The Operative frowned at the soldier's break in formation and approached the man calmly, studying the way the marine held himself before he lowered his hand to the hilt of his sword.

"Soldier, what are you doing?"
Revan said nothing, typing in the last bit of code before his security clearance courtesy of Blue Sun and their associates within Alliance Parliament showed that he was a class one Operative attached to Blue Sun's Blue Hand Agency. The Operative turned his eyes to the screen, his hand falling away from his sword as he frowned at Revan.

"Why would they send another Operative to assist me? I have all of the training and resources needed to apprehend the Tam Subject and silence her."
Revan slowly lifted his helmet from his head and turned his cold brown eyes to the Operative, merely answering the other man's question with silence. The Operative lowered his head for a moment before nodding to himself and pulling out his sword. Offering the weapon to Revan, the Operative knelt before Revan and waited with the sword held out.

"I ask to die by the blade. As a man."
Revan calmly took the Alliance Operative's weapon with respectful care, testing the weapon's near-perfect balance with a critical and professional eye.

"Men die on their feet, not their knees."
Revan said calmly, using the Force to lift the Operative into the air. The soldiers around the room tensed, but stood down as Revan released the Operative.
"That was... a first..."
The Operative stated with a frown, watching as Revan absently swung his sword in intricate and unfamiliar patterns that were... practical, even if they weren't a proper martial art. The weapon was handed back to the Operative and the man accepted with a frown, his eyes narrowing.

"The orders were for you to execute me, not to assist me."

Revan crossed his arms calmly, taking a casual stance and smirked slowly at the Operative. The Operative felt some unease at the man's unexplained abilities and his demeanor and allowed a frown to show on his face. Revan took the opening and spoke in a calm, slightly amused tone.

"How would you like to make a world without sin?"