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?"
