"I don't know, Revan, I think that maybe we should keep our word to the Rakatan and kill that rival faction," Malak said. "They sounded pretty bad from their description."

"Of course they did," Revan said. "They were trying to convince us to go kill them. They were hardly going to tell us that they seek to become one with nature or whatever."

"We could at least go check them out and see what they're like," Malak said. "We did agree to do it, after all."

"I don't actually feel obligated to do what I say I will do," Revan said. "Especially if I made that promise under duress."

"But…you didn't," Malak said.

"Sure I did. And so did you."

"I didn't feel under any duress," Malak said.

"Maybe your duress-sensing abilities aren't very developed," Revan suggested. "He told us we wouldn't get to go into that temple we needed to get into to turn off the disruptor beam until we went to go kill them. And maybe I talked them into just taking our word that we would absolutely go kill them later and letting us into the temple now. But I feel it's probably their fault we even needed help getting past a barrier to get there so I don't feel obligated to reward them for their attempts to keep us out."

"Well, that might be true," Malak conceded. "But come on, don't you at least think that we shouldn't piss them off in case we need something from them in the future?"

"Why would we need something from them in the future?" Revan asked rhetorically. "We get rid of that disruptor beam and we're golden and will never have to come back here again."

"But if we do?" Malak pressed.

Revan shrugged. "Then I guess we'll go kill the Others or whatever. The Others and the Elders…what stupid names for themselves."

"I guess they don't care about originality, just having a way to differentiate themselves in conversations," Malak said. "You really don't think they have a right to ask for our help if we're asking for their help to get into the temple?"

"No."

"Would you if you were being fair?" Malak asked.

Revan shrugged. "Who knows? But look, if you feel that strongly about it why don't you go wipe out a group of indigenous people on the say-so of a bunch of people we just met? I just don't want anything to do with it."

"For not wanting to be bothered reasons, not moral reasons!"

Another shrug. "It could be both. So are you going to go kill them?"

Malak sighed. "I guess not. I'll admit, I'm pretty anxious to go see the Star Forge after all this time."

"You only feel like we should help the Rakatan because we lied about destroying the Star Forge," Revan said.

Malak nodded. "I just feel a little guilty we're screwing them over on both fronts. They want to end the terrible legacy of their people by destroying the Star Forge by destroying it and we're going to not only not do that but put it to use again. They really shouldn't trust us."

"Ah, well, not our problem," Revan said. "And we have plenty enough of our own and soon to be more."

"We're not giving it to the Sith," Malak said firmly. "I don't care. I just don't. We're not doing that."

Revan nodded. "I never liked that plan."

"We can never go back, you know."

"You've been saying that since we started this thing," Revan replied.

"Yes but now it feels more true than ever," Malak said. "Maybe, after we won, we could have returned. The Council would be angry but I doubt they'd throw us out. We'd have to grovel and debase ourselves but they'd probably take us back eventually. After searching for the remnants of the Mandalorian fleet and the true threat, we could have gone back and tried to explain. But this…they will never understand."

Revan tiled his face upward. "Well, they were never the most understanding of people."


Bastila was back. Bastila had somehow made it out and she was back and Alek had been wary at first, she had been in Sith captivity for weeks, but she was back and she was more than ready to help them bring down the Star Forge. He had asked her, hesitantly, about Revan and she had just rolled her eyes and called him a public menace. That seemed a step up from her opinion of him before and yet she was distinctly not on his side still so Alek could only assume that Revan had been telling the truth that Bastila was 'fine.'

Carth had apologized to him about the way he had treated him and said some things that made him feel vaguely uncomfortable about how Malak was dead now and how Carth knew he was a good person. Carth shouldn't have to apologize for his rather mild reaction to finding out one of his friends was a former Sith who had ordered the bombing of his home and was now trying to stop the war he had started. But Carth seemed to feel like Revan had warned him about, that who he had been before was not worth salvaging and he was a completely new person. But the name remained the same even if Carth didn't properly understand and maybe it was for the best not to make Carth try and accept him as the same person who had destroyed his life. If this was easier for him then so be it.

They had slaughtered their way through the Star Forge with the help of Republic and Jedi forces they had called in (who, honestly, weren't that much of a help but at least their presence meant they didn't have to kill literally everyone in the Star Forge by themselves).

Bastila was busy using Battle Mediation and couldn't help fight and Mission and Zaalbar stayed behind to guard the ship and Bastila while she wasn't in a position to defend herself but everyone else came with him to confront Revan. Technically, they didn't need to find Revan at all. Technically, the Republic forces should be able to destroy the Star Forge with Bastila's help with or without Revan falling. But no one had wanted to risk it and so Alek was dispatched to deal with his former Sith Master. The friend Revan wouldn't give up.

They had found robes that looked just like Revan's (and some truly hideous ones that were apparently Light Side robes) and Alek put a pair on just to see what Revan would have to say about it.

Somehow along the way, he had gotten separated from the others and could do nothing else but continue on and hope he'd find Revan. This was the first time he had ever gone looking for him. This could very easily end with one of them dead. He didn't know if Revan would have the heart to kill him, it wasn't as though Alek had tried during their previous encounters, and he didn't know if he had the skill to kill Revan. One thing everyone could agree on was that Revan was almost impossibly talented.

Alek eventually found Revan eating lunch alone.

"Well, this is awkward," Alek said.

Revan took a sip of his drink. "Is it? Please, sit down."

Alek remained where he was. "Revan, what are you doing?"

Revan glanced down at his food. "Eating."

"I can see that," Alek said.

"Well, you did ask."

"Why are you eating?"

"I need to do that to live. And, before you ask, I'm doing it now because I'm hungry so it's probably lunchtime or something."

"You, uh, do realize that the space station is under attack, right?"

Revan nodded. "Of course I do. You wouldn't be here otherwise and it's not like anyone's trying to be stealthy."

"And yet you're still eating."

Revan shrugged. 'I don't really see how these two things are related."

"Shouldn't you, I don't know, go out and defend it or something?"

"I'm eating," Revan said pointedly.

"Force, Revan, between this and letting Bastila go, I almost have to wonder if you want the Star Forge to be destroyed."

"I didn't let her escape," Revan said, looking annoyed. "I was just busy doing other things and wasn't there. Bastila is very resourceful you know, and it's not like she didn't have plenty of time to study the environment and plot her escape."

Alek watched as Revan continued to eat.

"So…are we going to fight or something?" he asked eventually.

Revan looked down. "I guess…"

"Way to sound invested in this!"

"My apologies," Revan said. "I'm not great at sounding invested at the best of times and I don't want to fight you."

"Well you're going to have to," Alek said forcefully, pushing down any reaction he might have had to those words. "I'm not just going to cut your head off while you sit there."

Revan nodded. "I appreciate that. But might I suggest that you not cut my head off at all? That's just so gruesome."

Alek rolled his eyes. "You would like not to die. Duly noted."

Revan smiled. "Well that, too, but I mean specifically beheading. I think I have a thing about that."

"I guess I can try," Alek said. "Beheadings aren't that easy to swing in combat anyway."

"That's all I can ask," Revan said grandly.

After another few minutes, Alek abruptly said, "Revan, what are we doing?"

Revan gestured with his fork. "Well, I'm eating. And you're politely waiting around to try and kill me."

"I don't want to kill you," Alek admitted.

Revan smiled again. "And I don't want to kill you. That's good, I guess, thought it changes nothing."

"How did we get here, Revan?" Alek asked. "We were best friends and now we're being called upon to kill each other and decide the fate of the Republic. At least until the next crisis."

Revan's smiled turned sad. "That's being a Jedi, Malak."

"It's Alek," Alek said tolerantly. "And I'm sure the Jedi would be thrilled to hear you call yourself one."

"Ask me how long it took me to get the hang of calling you Malak when you first changed it," Revan said.

"I remember."

"Sith, Dark Jedi…the way we use the word 'Sith' it's really the same thing and given the Sith are a species not quite extinct as well as their hangers-on, I don't always think of myself that way. But we were Jedi, once, without any complications. There's sacrifice and delusions of grandeur and one man being expected to decide the fates of worlds. We were friends but now there's armies and ideology and those things can't matter."

What Revan was saying made a terrible sort of sense. And yet…"But it does matter."

"That's the personal element," Revan said. "And plenty of people have plenty to say about what kind of Jedi we are."

"We don't have to do this."

"Do you mean you don't have to do this?" Revan asked shrewdly. "You have Bastila. If I do nothing then you win. Of course you can argue in favor of peace."

"But what would be so terrible about letting the Star Forge be destroyed?"

"Careful, Alek," Revan said. "You're proselytizing."

"No, I'm serious," Alek said.

"Well there are the Sith sitting out there in space."

"And now the Jedi are finally hearing about them," Alek said. "Seriously, Revan, whether you thought they'd believe you or not you really should have told people about them."

Revan crossed his arms. "You didn't either."

"That is true," Alek conceded. "But I'm making up for it now. And the Jedi have promised to look into it and everything."

Revan rolled his eyes. "Well if they Jedi are going to look into it!"

"The Sith may be powerful, especially their emperor, but the fact that they risked sending us after the Star Forge instead of going themselves or just not using it and haven't invaded yet means they're not ready either," Alek said.

Revan nodded. "That's true but you want to destroy our source of unlimited resources."

"It's a bit evil."

"It's not that bad," Revan said.

"I know you know better than that," Alek said.

Revan just sighed. "Maybe. But surely a little bit of an evil station is worth stopping us all from being killed by Sith."

"Maybe it was a good idea before," Alek said. "But you know that unless you-I mean, you're not going to be able to win here." He really shouldn't put Bastila in Revan's line of fire. "If you could kill everyone and move the Star Forge maybe but that's not going to happen. Maybe your plan could have worked-"

"Our plan," Revan corrected.

"But we're here. We know about the Star Forge and you're just going to have to hope that the Republic is more battle-ready than they were and that they will take steps to continue to prepare themselves."

"It's not going to be enough," Revan said flatly.

"Then make it be enough," Alek said. "Come on, Revan. You're more flexible than that. You can make people listen to you and you can do whatever you think you have to do to prepare from within the Republic just as easily as if you conquered them and were ruling a Sith Empire."

"I doubt it," Revan said. "Being in charge, even actual charge and not just working with you, would mean I could do what I wanted far easier than if I had to actually explain myself to other people and prove my rather outlandish – if completely true – claims about a secret Sith Empire. I mean, I saw it personally and I barely believe it."

"That's a bit concerning. You really should believe the things you've seen," Alek said.

"As if you're one to talk," Revan said. "You can't believe half of what you think you remember."

"And some of it even because the Jedi messed with my mind."

Revan laughed.

"The benefit of working with the Republic, though, is that you won't have to conquer it first," Alek said.

A shrug. "It's already half-conquered."

"And how much of that was done before I was out of the picture?" Alek asked pointedly.

Revan frowned. "That is a very good point."

"I'm surprised you're not trying to convince me to turn evil again," Alek said.

"Why would I do that?" Revan asked, surprised.

"Well you do keep talking about how much you missed me and you are set on this whole being a Sith thing," Alek said. "The logical thing to do, it seems, would be to try and get me to fall again."

A complicated expression came upon Revan's face. "I suppose but…You seem happier now."

"And that matters?"

"That matters," Revan said firmly.

"I'm not very happy," Alek told him. "There's a war going on and I feel I can't trust anyone who doesn't happen to reside on the Ebon Hawk. I don't know what the future holds or how I'm going to live with myself once this is over. If I even make it until it's over."

"And yet you still seem happier," Revan said. "You as a Sith…you were very competent, of course, even if you sometimes overdid it and wasted a perfectly good planet by bombing the populace and the infrastructure instead of what we agreed on. But maybe I'm still too much a Jedi to celebrate someone's fall."

"You've been indirectly responsible for the fall of hundreds of Jedi."

"Yes but I didn't know most of them so it doesn't bother me as much," Revan said. "And that's indirectly. You're asking me to be the one thing that turns you evil. And I'm the one who went with you the first time. So, yeah, no thanks."

Alek closed his eyes and sighed. "Revan."

"What?"

"You can't just say things like that and then expect me to kill you!"

"I already voted against the killing me plan," Revan said. "Although I don't want to kill you either so who even knows how we're going to do this whole battle to the death thing."

"But we don't have to do it!" Alek said again.

"And what do you propose instead?" Revan asked. "Because I do have to admit that at this point salvaging this situation is going to be a massive headache and then there's committing to finishing conquering the Republic which I have to admit I've been a bit…lax about."

Alek snorted. That was one way to put it.

"Just come with me," Alek said. "They're letting me come back, of course they'll let you come back. Everyone always liked you better anyway."

Revan started to say something then stopped, blinking at him.

"What?" Alek asked, feeling oddly self-conscious.

"It's just…" Revan trailed off, clearing his throat. "It's been awhile since you've said that without bitterness. It's quite true, of course, but people never disliked you. They just…People have always looked at my power and projected whatever they wanted to see on it. People even now, after knowing me my whole life, won't look at reality and just see it for what it is. I don't rightly know why people idolize me but they do and, being my best friend and always being compared to that…Well, people have been telling me you were out to kill me almost since we found the Star Forge."

"I was kind of out to kill you," Alek admitted. "A little."

Revan shrugged. "It happens."

"That's it?" Alek asked uncertainly.

Revan shrugged again. "What are you expecting?"

"I don't know, some stronger reaction to the confirmation I wanted to kill you," Alek said. "I mean, if you had done what you were supposed to do and gone and met the Jedi on your ship I was going to have my ship fire on you so I wouldn't have to babysit you and get second billing anymore."

Revan nodded. "See, that might be upsetting if it weren't for the fact that that didn't happen and what happened instead was me accidentally allowing the Jedi to capture you and destroy your identity. I'm glad to see that you're working past that alright."

"That's very, uh, magnanimous of you," Alek said.

"I think I can afford to be generous."

"It doesn't matter," Alek said. "Come with me, Revan."

"I don't know," Revan said slowly.

Well it wasn't an outright no, at least. That meant there was hope. And even if it had been a no, Revan was usually open to persuasion if you just nagged him enough.

"It would be brilliant," Alek said. "Just tell them that you have seen the light and want to be redeemed and they'll have to let you come back. The Jedi are very big on redemption right now."

"I suppose it is good that we're at the 'no one is truly lost' and not the 'forever will it dominate your destiny' point in the cycle," Revan said thoughtfully. "Would people really believe it, though?"

"I don't see why not."

"Well, I'm kind of winning," Revan said. "And while the people who actually know me might just roll their eyes and despair at my general inability to follow through, most people don't have that kind of insight into me. Despite my lack of subtlety."

"We can just tell them that you had good intentions, that we both did, but we were seduced by the dark side trying to protect the Republic from the Sith. And then you found you couldn't kill me and you're working your way back to the light."

"That sounds like a lot of work," Revan said bluntly.

"And you wouldn't actually have to do it," Alek said. "Just come with me, say something convincing about seeing the light, and let's just move on with our lives."

"What would I even do?" Revan asked. "Rejoin the Jedi?"

Alek blinked. "Would you want to?"

"Surprisingly, yes," Revan said after a moment. "I like the title and the lightsabers and the Force powers and whatnot. Just so long as I don't have to do anything as penance for being a Sith or have to do all that much I should be good."

"Well I can almost guarantee you that whatever you'll have to do as a Jedi won't be half as difficult as all these wars you keep fighting," Alek said.

Revan tilted his head. "That is true but I'd rather not use all this unpleasantness as a litmus test for my future work. This is so much effort it's not even funny."

"And you can be done with all of that now," Alek said persuasively.

"If I just stop now, though, doesn't that make all this a waste of time? You know how much I hate a wasted effort, Alek."

"Ah but without that war the Republic wouldn't be as battle-ready as it is now-"

Revan snorted.

"And no one would have believed you about the Sith."

"I guess…"

"And you never did like the whole Sith thing," Alek said.

"That's not true," Revan said. "I loved the wardrobe and the evil station that can make anything and the title and the lack of people other than you telling me what to do."

"I can't help you with the Star Forge, that simply has to go," Alek said. "But you can happily ignore other people telling you what to do, and I don't think most will dare, and it's not like you have to give up your robes."

"I think the Jedi might insist," Revan said. "I've been reliably informed they are a bit evil."

Alek raised an eyebrow. "Sort of like how they insisted we not go to war?"

Revan tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Well if there's one thing I'm willing to go to bat for it's fashion."

"So come on."

"Do you seriously think it's going to be that easy?" Revan asked. "I just stand up and go with you and fuck all of this?"

"Yes."

Revan laughed. "Awfully optimistic of you!"

"Well you're very persuasive," Alek said. "And the Jedi are kind of terrified of your power. Add that to the fact they'd get bragging rights if they can 'save' you and they already brought me on board and what are they going to do? Execute you?"

"The Republic might," Revan said.

"You're too popular with the masses," Alek said. "Which is still really strange."

"Being so popular with the people I'm fighting might make the leaders want to neutralize me," Revan pointed out. "But then, I guess you're right, I can bring them around pretty quickly. The Jedi would probably want to lock me up or something, though."

"Just threaten to run away and join the True Sith or something instead of telling us how to prepare for them and I can say I don't remember as much as you do," Alek said, shrugging. "It's unconventional but we can make it work."

"Maybe we could," Revan said, still not quite committing. "But on the other hand…would you want to? I know you don't want to have to kill me but there's a big difference between that and wanting to still be friends."

"I cannot even believe you're basing your alignment on whether or not I want to be friends with you," Alek complained.

"Can't you, though?"

Alek groaned. "Okay, fine, yes I can. You really do need to care more about these things! They're important life decisions!"

"Not to me, they're not," Revan said.

"I don't know. Or rather, I do. I just…it's hard. You can't really understand what it's like to be someone one day and then find out, sorry, you're a man who has done terrible things even if mostly for good reasons and you've been opposing your former allies all this time. But you followed me around the galaxy until I remembered and you actually cared this happened to me."

"Of course I cared. Why wouldn't I care?" Revan asked, looking affronted.

"Well you didn't exactly stop me from actually turning evil when you were able to shake it off," Alek pointed out.

Revan threw his hands up in the air. "Since when have I been the persuasive one in this relationship?"

"You were always the persuasive one."

"But not with you."

Alek just shook his head. "And, as strange as this is to be saying about the current Dark Lord of the Sith, I do enjoy spending time with you. So while things might still be a little weird for a while and I have no doubt the Jedi will want to try and keep us separated for a while…yes."

Revan finished the last of his meal and put down his utensils. "Then by all means."

"You know that nobody is going to believe the way that this went down, right?" Alek asked. "Or if they do they'll be really disappointed."

"Everyone's a critic," Revan said. "Feel free to add a lightsaber battle as long as I win and can't go through with the final blow."

"Nobody who actually knows you will believe it," Alek said.

"They'll probably be able to figure it out," Revan agreed. "But for everyone else, if you really want to sell it, I'm going to have to be able to defeat you in ninety seconds blindfolded while eating dinner. Not to belittle your skills or anything, but that's just the impression people have of me."