Chapter 7
The point of meditation was to calm oneself, but most of the time, it irritated the blasted hell out of Darth Revan. It centered him, sure and it also brought him concentration and rest, but he found it a terrible waste of time. This was one of those moments, he could have been designing more defenses against these True Sith or managing the Empire with all of the time that he had wasted, but the other part of him needed to know what that powerful Light Side presence was and where he could find it exactly. Revan had given Traya access to one of the private Dark Jedi, because frankly there was no way in hell that he was going to let her get near his private quarters. She was cunning and something told him that if she had the chance, she would try to reassert herself as the Dark Lady of the Sith. He was resolved to keeping her contained at all costs.
"Pleased Statement: Master, I have good news to report to you on the matter of your wife and her test," The intercom of the Meditation Chamber switched on and the synthetic voice of HK-47 filled the chamber.
Revan opened his eyes, and looked at the floor in front of him, not moving from his meditation position on the floor, "What is it?"
"Pleased Response: I am overjoyed to inform you that her majesty the Empress has killed over thirty nine individuals while in the under city and has still yet been unable to detect our surveillance of her progress."
A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he closed his eyes again, "How long until she reaches the surface exit?"
"Cautious Response: it will be sometime before she is able to escape the under city – I will do whatever I deem necessary to protect her from outward threats," HK responded to his master very, very carefully.
Revan's eyes opened again and this time he turned his head to the left and looked at the actual control panel, as if HK were actually in the chamber with him, "You know, as your designer and maker, I usually let you have free reign over what you do – I let you indulge your whims, kill an elderly person, kill that teenager, I understand and I let you do it because that's what I built you to do, to kill. However, you seem to be not quite grasping the concept of guarding something - you will guard Bastila as if you were guarding me, if she dies or if she is injured, I will make you wish that you were never constructed, protect her at all costs, she is only to engage the droids and prisoners."
The Dark Lord of the Sith didn't need to hear a response from his droid to know that the droid understood him loud and clear, any other person might have entertained the possibility that the assassin would have been offended by his words, but Revan knew how his droid worked, he built the damned thing. He smiled when the droid deactivated his end of the comlink and after another moment of centering himself, he drifted back into his trance. Force trances were something that he seldom liked – it was unsettling to think that you were defenseless and it was unsettling to think that you were open to all other Force users in the Galaxy, open for attack. This was one of those cases were he felt unsettled by being exposed, there was some powerful force of the Light Side, lurking out there and he was exposed to it. His mental walls were essentially lowered when he was in a deep trance.
As he plunged deeper into this source, he found something peculiar, something that was trying to hide itself from his gaze but it wasn't going very well. This shadowed presence was trying to hide itself, but it was either failing or purposely failing because it was too powerful to actually hide. Very curious, very curious indeed and when he touched on nerve deeper, he found what had made his danger senses flair – this hidden dark presence was augmenting the light one, amplifying it. It took a lot of power to do that, an enormous amount of power to that, for one star in an entire galaxy to outshine the others, it required that star to go Supernova, this must have been the equivalent to a supernova in the Force. He himself could do that, but it would tire him, and the only other person who was capable of doing that was…
How could he be so stupid?
Breaking the trance with his willpower alone to keep him from feeling the effects of severing the connection that quickly, he shot up and began to pace the length of the Meditation Chamber, he needed to think quickly.
The Emperor was either setting a trap or trying to get him to notice something, or it could have been both, he just didn't know what.
Revan groaned and rubbed his forehead.
He was thinking in circles now.
"Interlink Emergency Communication: This is Code 101 Lockdown, Code 101 Lockdown, Jedi Snub fighters approaching from the south, all guards report to designated posts," A female voice echoed through chamber.
Okay, that was something that made him stop pacing and look back at the control panel with an utterly stupefied look on his face, "What in the hell?"
Darth Traya, this Light Side Presence, the emissary of the Emperor and now this, the last two days were shaping up to the be the strangest of his life. He let out a choked, disbelieving snort and walked over to the control panel and the viewscreen, "Computer: bring up Satellite Command, show the vicinity of the Government Sector, lock onto all vessels that are not in customs database or in the government database and show me a magnified image."
He stepped back from the panel and watched as the database computed his requests and when the computation was concluded, the live images of the snub fighters were brought up onto the screen. There were three of them, how curious, did the Jedi think that they were going to storm his keep and kill him with three Jedi Masters? Were they getting that desperate to take the planet back and to kill him? He snorted and shook his head, it all seemed to be raining down on his head and he kept dodging them. Folding his arms over his bare chest, he began to ponder his next move. At the bottom of the screen was a small timer that would end when they landed at the main landing pad of the Central Government Building, he didn't have much time.
Sighing, he leaned forward and pressed the intercom, "Cancel that order, this is Darth Revan, I will deal with this myself, just secure all entrances to the building. Have a squad of commandos standing in the event that they manage to get in without my express permission is that understood?"
"501st Legion standing by sir," The communications officer responded.
He nodded and used the force to deactivate the com and to summon his chest guard and robes from the small rack near the door. As he began to slip them on, he began to seriously wonder why they Jedi were being so fragrantly stupid, or brave. Revan had to admit that these Jedi were brave to come to Coruscant, let alone approach the Government Sector, where they knew the security would be very tight. He hated to admit it, he absolutely loathed the fact that he did feel it, but he respected these Jedi for having the guts to do this. He would reward them accordingly, he would come to them.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
"I hope that this was all worth it," Master Vrook spat into his headpiece.
It had all been on impulse from his perspective, the decision from the Jedi Council, but what he wasn't aware of was that it had been well thought of by the more senior members of the Council. The logic was simple, they were sure that Revan's main goal was the destruction of their order and if they were right, they would stop their merciless assault on the Republic if the Jedi left the service of the Republic, it was foolish, but it might work.
"I know this will work," Master Zhar was patient with his counterpart and tried not to sound as annoyed as he actually was in his rebuttal, "My former learner might have fallen to the Dark Side, but one does not change their thinking – I know Revan, I know how he thinks, he will consider this."
"And are we prepared to die for this plan?" Vrook questioned.
"Three Jedi Masters against the Dark Lord of the Sith, I would wager that it would be an even match," Zhar retorted, "You're opinion Master Vandar?"
He was the most senior of all of them and the most powerful of them all and his was the most respected on the Council. The only reason that the council had agreed to this was because of the fact that it had Vandar's reluctant approval, "We must be cautious – the future is clouded by confusion."
"If only we could feel Reva-…" Master Zhar began but he was interrupted by the sound of the Imperial Air Traffic Controller breaking through to them.
"Jedi Snub Fighters – you've been given clearance to land at the central landing pad of the Government Center," The stern male voice reluctantly told them, "Lord Revan will greet you there personally, this is your one warning, any divergence from the approved course and you will be fired upon by the 4th 5th and 6th Elite Fighter Squadrons that are shadowing you from Space. They will descend the moment that you divert."
Zhar raised an eyebrow, "Are all of these threats necessary?"
"It's not often that we have scum such as yourselves foolish enough to come here of all places," The Air Traffic Controller responded snidely, "We just want you to be sure that if you do attempt something… Jedi-like, you'll be vaporized before you could turn the yoke."
"Sith…" Vrook shook his head in exasperation.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
"This is the Coruscanti Freighter Service," A female announced over the intercom as Satele Shan patiently waited in line to board the actual craft. It was only the dark cloak that she had around her that made her feel safe in this new environment that she found herself in. All would be well once she was back to Coruscant – she would go to the temple and sleep for-…
That's right, she'd almost forgotten.
The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was destroyed in her own time and universe and here the Jedi Temple was occupied by her ancestor and his Sith Empire, there was no Jedi on Coruscant. In fact the only place that they seemed to be was in Republic Territory and according to the information that was given to her, there was no way of getting there unless she had a fleet of hundreds of thousands of ships to get across. Oh, and there was the small fact that the Republic was only a few days away from unconditional surrender to Revan. Oh, how strange one misstep could alter history into something that was completely unrecognizable – this was the perfect case.
The Revan she knew, the Revan that she was taught about by her family and by her history lessons was nothing like this one. This one remained the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Malak hadn't even had a chance to kill him, he had captured Bastila and had conquered Coruscant.
Everything was upside down now and she had no way of getting back.
There was no way back – none.
And with that – she slung a pack over her shoulder and started up the boarding ramp towards the freighter that would take her to Coruscant. A portion of her was telling her to jump out of line and get as far away from the Sith as possible, but the other and far larger side of her was telling her that there was no way to outrun them and that there might be something to going to Revan. There, she figured, she might be a little bit more safer.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
His jaw tightened, his breathing became controlled as he readied himself for one hell of a fight. He could take them all individually, but three Jedi Masters all at once. It might have made him break a sweat. Gripping his lightsaber tightly in one hand, he watched as the pathetic Jedi Fighters began their landing procedures on the landing pad in front of him. If they wanted to kill him, he wouldn't make them wait and he wouldn't make them deal with all sorts of distractions, he'd come to them and he'd kill one by one.
Revan's scowl turned into a surprised look as the three masters exited the fighters and approached him, no weapons, no insipid meditation? That was odd for a Jedi not to do, not to mention the fact that these were Jedi Masters he was looking at. Relaxing, slightly, only slightly, he blinked and deactivated his weapon, but he still kept it clutched in his hand.
"Master Jedi," Revan cleared his threat, "I thought I should do you the favor of meeting you in person, it must have been a long and dangerous trip."
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
"Kriffing Droids," Bastila growled as her lightsaber beam died out.
She had been running from the damn enforcer droids for an hour now! It was foolish for her to actually believe for a moment that her husband would make this that easy on her. She had retrieved the datapad and had fallen through hatch that had automatically opened under her – she hadn't even had a chance to read the thing. She had spent the last sixty minutes running from droids, slicing through them and deflecting the blaster cannons on the humongous abominations, "Over here! Over here!"
She made the mistake of looking towards the direction of the voice and that was just enough of a distraction for the Enforcer Droid to shoot at her. Feeling the bolt zipping towards her, she quickly shifted to the right, but even though it was enough to keep her from getting wounded, the blaster bolt blasted through the map of the under city on her waist.
Looking down at the sizzling pile of rubbish that was now at her side, she growled and turned back to the droid. Summoning her full strength in the force, enormous arcs of lightening crackled from her fingertips and entered the droid in front of her. Her hate and frustration fed the energy as it entered the mechanical body and it seemed to be never ending.
When she heard the droid power down, Bastila took a deep breath in and force pushed the droid away with her freehand. Feeling the breath leave her, she took a moment to catch it and when her breath had normalized, she turned her head towards the voice. It was a young boy who had called out for her. For all intents and purposes, Bastila would have thought him a poor child, down in the under-city, barely surviving. However there were a few things that tipped her off to the fact that he was more then he appeared.
On his shaggy dark brown hair, she spied the traditional Jedi Padawan braid and even though they were tinged and torn, she spied the traditional Padawan Vestments. The child was a Jedi, until this moment she had thought that all of the Jedi had been run off of Coruscant, but now that she pondered it further, it was possible. Bastila wiped the sweat off of her forehead and cocked her head sideways, "What is your name child?"
"Jolan," He responded meekly, Bastila could feel the fear circulating around him, and she could feel the hint of the Force in him, "Are you a-a S-Sith?"
"Yes," Bastila said and looked back to the pile of charred parts on the ground, "And you wouldn't happen to know a way out of here do you?"
The boy nodded franticly, "I do – but we have to wait until sunset to get to the surface crossing, right now the way is filled with thugs and thieves."
Bastila wanted to ask the boy how the hell he was able to tell when it was sunset from the under-city, but she wanted to make a good impression because he was seemingly the only way that she was going to get out of this. She'd also try to play down the fact that she knew he was a Jedi Padawan, when he said the word Sith, his fear of her spiked enormously.
"Very well," Bastila sighed and nodded, "By the way, do you have any food?"
No matter how far she had fallen, there was something about a child's smile, or in this case, grin, that made her feel warm and bubbly inside. She smiled at him as he led her away from the direction that she had been running from. She didn't know that this was the beginning of something that would change her life as well as her husband's life forever.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X
